There are Already Thousands of Exhibitions in the World - A Letter for Heman
Dear Heman,
Hope you're doing well.
As promised, I am writing the text for our catalogue right now. However I wonder if anyone would be interested in the least in these words. After all, I myself am not too fond of reading tediously long essays written by others, which are routinely included in thick tomes of catalogues.
Frankly, as an ordinary person,I feel we only really need two kinds of texts:
- that which is aesthetically pleasing, and;
- that which is utilitarian.
The first serves to keep us interested and entertained. Fiction would be an example of this.
The second serves to solve problems at hand and has a practical purpose. Instructional booklets would be corresponding example of this.
Now, let's try to synthesise the two: that which is both aesthetically pleasing and useful would be an ideal text. A good novel as well as a good instructional booklet are therefore texts which combine the two requirements above.
In other words, if I aim to write something about an art work which everyone would want to read, and if I am not planning to write a novel or a set of instructions, but instead would like to create a critical text about art... well then,it’s almost impossible mission..
Yet to me, this makes sense: why should one read about a work rather than personally encounter and experience the work?
Interestingly enough, the less time we have to look at works within an exhibition, the more invitations we receive to attend the exhibitions, there are oftentimes a huge amount of explanation texts (note: explanation and instructional texts are vastly different). It is as if there is a worry that everyone at the show simply has no time to feel the work at all.
So, Heman, there are already thousands of exhibitions in the world. Why do we want to add another to the number?
As has been articulated by thinkers from Walter Benjamin to Guy Debord, the whole world is already becoming a “Sensation Fair”. our exhibition would merely an unworthy visual (re)presentation of what is out there in the world.
What is our justification to convince ourselves that we need another exhibition? For instance, we claim that what we have is “thought-provoking” (with our tongue firmly lodged in our cheeks).
At the end of it all, perhaps it was an act of impulse,which is driven by, as Harald Szeemann had pointed out, “Museum of Obsession” in our own head.
Life is full of ennui and disparate problems, each of which requires a different solution. As a result, we have an urge to act or do something, if anything, to create an opportunity window.
Hence, for all my procrastinations and thoughts, I must still get down to writing this text for our upcoming exhibition – if not for myself, then for others too.
Chance. Perhaps everyone just needs a chance – just like, for instance, a chance meeting between a boy and a girl... It is something that based on the desire of unpredictable fate.
Just as is the case in game, we have to watch our opponents/partners and re-define our situation.I believe that authentic works are those which struggle within a fixed space to grow up its own chance.
As I'm writing this, I thought of the Singapore Art Museum and the day when we'd gone to see the exhibition of Cheo Chai Hiang's works. Cheo transformed the correspondences related to his work Singapore River between him and the exhibition organiser into a series of “painting”s that you could read as well as see,and Singapore River(1972) is one of Singapore's most controversial art pieces. Perhaps my letter is somewhat connected to the “painting” by Cheo: the words in this missive is an attempt to reinterpret, alter or transform – in part – the concept behind our exhibition. It is not meant to be descriptive; rather, it aims to form and construct an entity.
All my best to warm Singapore from freezing Vienna.
Give my regards to Melissa! We have to go back to that Peranakan restaurant next time around!
Hu Fang
10 November 2006
The Sole Proprietor and other Stories, published by Vitamin Creative Space, 2007, pp.9-11; Reprinted in Yishu, June 2007,pp.67-69
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