CLASSIFIED MATERIALS: Accumulations, Archives, Artists
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
Duration: Oct. 15, 2005 – Jan. 2, 2006
CLASSIFIED MATERIALS: Accumulations, Archives, Artists
Duration: Oct 15th, 2005 to January 2nd, 2006
Location: the Vancouver Art Gallery
Curated by Grant Arnold, Audain Curator of British Columbia Art; Daina Augaitis, Chief Curator/Associate Director; Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator; Monika Szewczyk, Assistant Curator, Vancouver Art Gallery
Artists: Roy Arden, Kim Kennedy Austin, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hai Bo, Christian Boltanski, Eric Cameron, Sarah Charlesworth, Kate Craig, Paul de Guzman, Eugenio Dittborn, Geoffrey Farmer, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Gerald Ferguson, Ellen Gallagher, Hadley + Maxwell, Douglas Huebler, Carole Itter, Emily Jacir, On Kawara, Garry Neill Kennedy, Roy Kiyooka, Robyn Laba, Micah Lexier, The Long March Project, Kyla Mallett, Eric Metcalfe, Morris/Trasov Archive (Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov), Muntadas, Al Neil, N.E. Thing Co., Michael Euyung Oh, Denise Oleksijczuk, Heather Passmore, Ed Ruscha, Jayce Salloum, Mary Scott, Steven Shearer, Jeffrey Spalding, Irene Whittome, Kelly Wood, Jin-me Yoon.
In a world characterized by an abundance of information that circulates rapidly through a complex set of networks, the processes of assembling and ordering material holds a distinctive resonance as the basis for artistic activity. This exhibition examined some of the ways in which artists employ, transform or challenge the processes of ordering and classification through which concepts of the world and our individual positions within it are deeply embedded. Classified Materials spanned two floors of the Gallery and combined an extensive selection of works from the collection with contributions by internationally regarded contemporary artists from Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. From the construction of fictive personas to the configuration of social realities, Classified Materials provided key insights into the much-debated function of archiving and accumulation.
The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County at Vancouver Art Gallery
Lasting several years and still ongoing today, “The Long March – A Walking Visual Display,” aside from having contemporary art go to the countryside “from a top to bottom, outside to inside” approach, has also tried to create a fundamental connection between artistic creativity, display, narration, and history and the contemporary from the perspective of visual culture by continuously constructing a subjectivity “from the bottom up.”
For half a year in 2004, the Long March team, in conjunction with the Yanchuan County government, worked in the field covering over 1,940 square kilometers and surveying over 180,000 people to conduct a thorough investigation of the state of papercuttings in one Chinese county. Papercutting samples and survey forms were collected from 15,006 individuals throughout Yanchuan County, which along with documentary film material, sound recordings, textual documents, photographs and images, as well as objects produced throughout the survey process combine to form a vast visual and textual archive entitled “Long March Project – The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County.”
The entire archive is currently on an international touring exhibition with previous stops at the 2004 Shanghai Biennale and the 2004 Taipei Biennale. For the stop in Vancouver, the archive will participate in an exhibition entitled “Classified Materials: Accumulations, Archives, Artists”, which will examine how artists employ, transform and challenge the processes of ordering and classification through which conceptions of the world, and our individual positions in it, are deeply embedded.” The exhibition will include works from the museum’s permanent collection along with contributions by contemporary artists from Vancouver, Asia, Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
Today, through the form of a survey, the development and changes of folk culture and local customs are being brought to the international museum space and has entered the site of contemporary art. This type of connection between inside and outside, and the interactive movement between the top and the bottom and between the local and international is the unique to the structure of Chinese modernity. “The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County” is a social project that mobilizes contemporary artists, grassroots cadres, and art officials to once again return to the villages, combining art with the methodologies of anthropology and science to conduct a comprehensive survey of an entire county.
The Long March is proud to present, in its first North American showing, “The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County” at the Vancouver Art Gallery from October 14, 2005 – January 2, 2006.
36 Survey Forms
Installation Plan by Long March Project
Installation View
CLASSIFIED MATERIALS: Accumulations, Archives, Artists
Duration: Oct 15th, 2005 to January 2nd, 2006
Location: the Vancouver Art Gallery
Curated by Grant Arnold, Audain Curator of British Columbia Art; Daina Augaitis, Chief Curator/Associate Director; Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator; Monika Szewczyk, Assistant Curator, Vancouver Art Gallery
Artists: Roy Arden, Kim Kennedy Austin, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hai Bo, Christian Boltanski, Eric Cameron, Sarah Charlesworth, Kate Craig, Paul de Guzman, Eugenio Dittborn, Geoffrey Farmer, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Gerald Ferguson, Ellen Gallagher, Hadley + Maxwell, Douglas Huebler, Carole Itter, Emily Jacir, On Kawara, Garry Neill Kennedy, Roy Kiyooka, Robyn Laba, Micah Lexier, The Long March Project, Kyla Mallett, Eric Metcalfe, Morris/Trasov Archive (Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov), Muntadas, Al Neil, N.E. Thing Co., Michael Euyung Oh, Denise Oleksijczuk, Heather Passmore, Ed Ruscha, Jayce Salloum, Mary Scott, Steven Shearer, Jeffrey Spalding, Irene Whittome, Kelly Wood, Jin-me Yoon.
In a world characterized by an abundance of information that circulates rapidly through a complex set of networks, the processes of assembling and ordering material holds a distinctive resonance as the basis for artistic activity. This exhibition examined some of the ways in which artists employ, transform or challenge the processes of ordering and classification through which concepts of the world and our individual positions within it are deeply embedded. Classified Materials spanned two floors of the Gallery and combined an extensive selection of works from the collection with contributions by internationally regarded contemporary artists from Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. From the construction of fictive personas to the configuration of social realities, Classified Materials provided key insights into the much-debated function of archiving and accumulation.
The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County at Vancouver Art Gallery
Lasting several years and still ongoing today, “The Long March – A Walking Visual Display,” aside from having contemporary art go to the countryside “from a top to bottom, outside to inside” approach, has also tried to create a fundamental connection between artistic creativity, display, narration, and history and the contemporary from the perspective of visual culture by continuously constructing a subjectivity “from the bottom up.”
For half a year in 2004, the Long March team, in conjunction with the Yanchuan County government, worked in the field covering over 1,940 square kilometers and surveying over 180,000 people to conduct a thorough investigation of the state of papercuttings in one Chinese county. Papercutting samples and survey forms were collected from 15,006 individuals throughout Yanchuan County, which along with documentary film material, sound recordings, textual documents, photographs and images, as well as objects produced throughout the survey process combine to form a vast visual and textual archive entitled “Long March Project – The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County.”
The entire archive is currently on an international touring exhibition with previous stops at the 2004 Shanghai Biennale and the 2004 Taipei Biennale. For the stop in Vancouver, the archive will participate in an exhibition entitled “Classified Materials: Accumulations, Archives, Artists”, which will examine how artists employ, transform and challenge the processes of ordering and classification through which conceptions of the world, and our individual positions in it, are deeply embedded.” The exhibition will include works from the museum’s permanent collection along with contributions by contemporary artists from Vancouver, Asia, Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
Today, through the form of a survey, the development and changes of folk culture and local customs are being brought to the international museum space and has entered the site of contemporary art. This type of connection between inside and outside, and the interactive movement between the top and the bottom and between the local and international is the unique to the structure of Chinese modernity. “The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County” is a social project that mobilizes contemporary artists, grassroots cadres, and art officials to once again return to the villages, combining art with the methodologies of anthropology and science to conduct a comprehensive survey of an entire county.
The Long March is proud to present, in its first North American showing, “The Great Survey of Papercuttings in Yanchuan County” at the Vancouver Art Gallery from October 14, 2005 – January 2, 2006.
36 Survey Forms
Installation Plan by Long March Project
Installation View