Ways of Seeing: Big-Name Artists at Chao's Annual Exhibition Challenge How We See

Named after the Booker Prize-winning book and TV series by British art critic John Berger, Chao Hotel's latest annual show Ways of Seeing follows a similar dissection of images and objects but with a particular focus on the hidden ideologies in visual images, as a reminder that "the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled."

To further that discussion, the exhibition gathers 17 internationally acclaimed artists including Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Ana Mendieta, Victor Pasmore, Alfredo Jaar, Yoko Ono, Huang Rui, Xu Bing, and Wang Qingsong, presenting a number of their representative works, including many that are being publicly exhibited in China for the first time.

The show is as diverse as the artists it houses, spanning everything from text and prints, videos and photographs, and art installations created over 65 years. Yet despite the disparate forms, each of the works forces the viewer to question what exactly it is that they're seeing – reality or farce, genuine expression or acting? – creating one of the most cohesive and well-curated collections this year.

Ways of Seeing, then, throws into question what we think we know either through sleight of hand or performance as rebellion. It's also fitting that the first work is that of then-couple Marina Abramović and Ulay, whose grueling 90-day walk towards each other on the Great Wall was meant to conclude in their holy matrimony, only to in fact mark their eternal separation.

Visionary German artists Joseph Beuys is represented here by his piece "I Like America and America Likes Me," a demonstration against the US' involvement in the Vietnam War. To convey his anti-war stance, he flew into New York's JFK International Airport in 1974, was bundled into a taxi, and taken directly to West Broadway, where he lived on and off for the next three days in an enclosure with nothing but a live coyote, a walking stick, a felt blanket, editions of The Washington Post, and some hay.

Meanwhile, K Foundations’ stunning and still controversial Money: A Major Body of Cash (1994), which culminates in their Burning of A Million Quid, shows its two members Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond burn the savings that they reaped in the early '90s as "the bestselling singles band in the world," The KLF. It is as captivating as it is horrifying to watch the duo toss one million British pounds (the current equivalent of RMB 25 million) into the fire, dizzying the helpless onlooker with questions of "could you do it?"

A decade later, British street artist Banksy paid homage to that iconic piece with his Di-Faced Tenner (also on show here), when he distributed one million British pounds in fake 10 pound notes at the Notting Hill Carnival, a conceptual work that called into question the hypocrisy of the British royals and their tacit involvement in the princesses' death.

Anonymous feminist New York-based collective Guerrilla Girls take an altogether more direct approach to questioning our worldview, with their wall-sized banner ads. First advertised on a public bus in New York City in 1989, the directly titled "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" is as garish as it is uncompromising. Framed in a consumerist format we're all too familiar with, these "advertisements" are doubly arresting for forcing us to think instead, giving rise to more questions than answers.

Whether it is through these mass media advertisements, performance pieces, facsimiles, mottos, or riffs on other innocuous, everyday objects, each of the works collected here showcases is tailored to leave its visitors to contemplate how the systems, culture, and power structures in place innately shape the confines of our lives.

Ways of Seeing opens runs until Oct 6 at Chao Art Center between 1-9pm of workdays and 1-10pm on weekends. Tickets cost RMB 80 and can be bought here.

READ: Wander Between Reality and Trickery in Leandro Erlich’s Uncanny CAFA Installations

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Photos courtesy of Chao Art Center