K11 Art Foundation

The all-digital collaboration pairs four video works by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) collection artists with four works on loan to K11 Art Foundation (KAF). Videos and films by Judy Fiskin, Erin Cosgrove, Mark Leckey, and Damián Ortega are paired with those by Chinese artists Liu Chuang, Guan Xiao, Li Ming, and Cheng Ran. Each pairing has showcased the similarities and differences in both the physical and cultural landscape of each institution’s location, as well as the unique experience of viewing these works during a global pandemic.

KAF x MOCA: Transpacific Stream is organised by Bryan Barcena, Assistant Curator of Programmes and Manager of Publications, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Click the button below to watch the online discussion between the curator of the programme Bryan Barcena and participating artist Liu Chuang

Pair 1: Judy Fiskin – Liu Chuang
Automotive Landscapes

Judy Fiskin’s The End of Photography, 2007, captures the vantage from which most Angelenos encounter their city. Los Angeles is a profoundly twentieth-century city, insofar that its character was born from its inextricable relationship to the automobile. The film documents the vernacular architecture endemic to Los Angeles with a series of statements that list the elements that will no longer exist as we approach the end of film-based photography. Liu Chuang’s Untitled (The Dancing Partner), 2010, showcases a similar experience relating to the world as seen from the automobile. However, in Liu Chuang’s case, the artist suggests a relationship between automobile, passenger, and dense urban landscape that is both banal and tender at once.

Pair 2:  Erin Cosgrove – Guan Xiao
Humour

Part of the counter-culture that has defined the Californian lifestyle has been its proclivity for humour, self-deprecation, and a laissez-faire attitude. Humour, and humorous takes on the existential have long been themes that run throughout the video art that emerged from the American west coast - from Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, to Andrea Fraser; irony and pastiche are defining characteristics of artistic practice in California. Erin Cosgrove’s How Happy am I, 2009, is an animated condensation of human evolution, sang by a cast of dancing animated cartoons. Guan Xiao’s David, 2013, similarly uses song to create a humorous lens to make light of the ways that Michelangelo’s iconic David is exulted by its viewers.

Pair 3: Mark Leckey – Li Ming
Movement

Over the last year, we have dealt with the ramifications of social distancing and health policies that ask us to remain within tight social circles. As we dream of the times when we might interact with strangers once again, benefit from chance encounters, and share our bodies with those around us, this video pairing bring us fond reminders of the ways that we move through space. Mark Leckey’s Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, 1999, pays tribute to the dance-club culture that we hope to return to. Li Ming’s Movement, 2014, shows the artist using his body to propel himself and move freely from vehicle to vehicle, in a seemingly endless stream of encounters with freeway inhabitants.

Pair 4: Damián Ortega – Cheng Ran
Man versus Machine

Now more than ever, we are struggling to understand the ways that technology, and the world we build within them, mediate our experience with our world. The relationship can be fraught, as we struggle to decide how a world transcribed through machines can be both a blessing and a curse. In Damián Ortega’s Moby Dick, 2004, a team of men struggle to contain a Volkswagen Beetle that writhes and pulls as its wheels slip on the greased asphalt. Set to a raucous soundtrack the iconic automobile, one that holds a nostalgic relationship to Mexican culture, seems transformed into a living creature. In Cheng Ran’s Always I Distrust, 2020, the artist approaches a quixotic relationship with technology from a totally different angle, one that embraces the miscommunications and mistranslations that come with our digital interactions. The simulated conversation between the artist and a spammer’s hacked email list leads us to think that, although the relationship might be predicated on falsities, there are still emotional connections to be made.