The Beauty of Dismantling

Sometimes the dismantling of an exhibition is as compelling as the live work. 

We missed the Shanghai Biennale at the Power Station of Art. But dismantling of the monumental work Bodhisattva with a Thousand Hands by Huang Yong Ping created it's own spectacle of scale, improvisation, delicacy and risk.

Which is perfectly in keeping with the Biennale's theme of Reactivation — echoing the venue's former life as a working power station.

Remembering Emil Goh: A night and a day in Seoul 2007

Emil Goh & The Lesson of the Lunch, Seoul 9 September 2007

I just checked my passport to see exactly when it was that I spent one very strange evening and an unforgettable day in Seoul, courtesy of the dearly departed Emil Goh. I see that it was Saturday 8 September 2007 that I watched a live Australian Rules football final between the Sydney Swans and Collingwood, screening outside a Seoul street cafe that Emil hunted down specially for me. And it was the following Sunday 9 that he took me on a 5 hour guided tour of one of his favourite Seoul neighbourhoods.

I didn't know Emil very well, and that's precisely the point. He fully inhabited his own passions and welcomed you into his world. He also respected your idiosyncratic preoccupations and created opportunities for them to be realised too. He just loved to engage with people, places and things — all the while capturing the exchanges that unfolded between them with his incredible eye and effusive commentary.

It's still possible to get a taste of walking through the streets of Seoul (and other cities) with Emil through the beautiful monument of his Superlocal flickr project. There are many heartfelt messages under the last image he uploaded from those who knew him in person or only through his photographs. Typically it was a photo of something tasty — a strawberry & green tea icecream of Eiffel Tower proportions with the comment: 'tis tall soft serve season in Myeongdong!they used to be nearly twice as tall a few years back but with the recession and all, instead of raising prices, they made them shorter, sigh.' As many people have observed, Emil really loved food and there are more entries about that subject than any other in his photostream (893 pics). So it's only fitting that I include video footage of him teaching me how to eat the meal we shared that Sunday in September.

Emil was our South Korea correspondent. His observations did not trade in exotica but valorised the superlocal. He had a heart full of Seoul.

REMEMBRANCES OF EMIL
revised March 2016
In Memory of Emil Goh by Poketo
Remembering Emil Goh, 1966-2009 by Motoelastico
Keeping it Superlocal - a Tribute to Emil Goh by Sonya Gee
Friend of the World by Ateri |Art + Culture
Tribute: In Memory of Emil Goh by Wendy Goh
Things I learned about life from Emil Goh (1966-2009) by Annamatic
Remembering Emil Goh by Nandemo
Emil Goh 1966 to 2009 is Too Friggin Short by Vanessa Bates
Chronicler of the Asian-Australian experience by Benjamin Gennochio & Melissa Chui
Obituary: Emil Goh, 1966-2009 by RealTime magazine

On My Way to/from Work: Commodification of Public Space #1

Kleenex Silk Touch Tissue Tree

First Fleet Park, Circular Quay, Sydney,19 May 2009

'Welcome to the Kleenex Soft Touch Tissue Tree Swathed in hundreds of metres of luxurious silks, the tree is covered with blossoms that dispense the new Kleenex Soft Touch tissues. Exceptionally soft and silky, we invite you to feel the difference yourself by taking a Kleenex Silk Touch tissue from the low hanging blossoms. Kleenex Silk Touch Tissue. Softer, Smoother, Gentler. Feel the Difference. Kleenex'

Informed by 'sampling staff' that the Kleenex Silk Touch Tissue Tree is an 'art installation in memory of Christo' by 'street artists Perso & Detch' / see www.mrpersoanddetch.com also their commercial graffiti campaign to promote Green Day album

I Search Myself, I Want You To Find Me

Australian new media artist Linda Wallace has contributed to a YouTube curatorial project for Pulse art fair in New York. She joins a group of artists invited by curator Marina Fokidis to create playlists from YouTube videos. Linda Wallace has selected 10 videos of people singing 'I Touch Myself' by the Australian band the Divinyls from 1991.

brandsusan unhesitatingly recommends version 2 by aestheticdevistation


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PULSE PLAY>Random Rules: A Chanel of Artists’ selections from YouTube
Curated by Marina Fokidis
Many believe that since the launch of YouTube in 2005, the history of the moving image has diverted from its canonical route. The website, which makes it possible for anyone who can use a computer to post a video, reaches millions of people daily. Like no other time before, it is now possible for amateur videos, music videos, film footage, commercials and news segments as well as (in some cases) artists’ videos to be mingled together in a random way, free of any preconceived hierarchy or system. According to Fokidis, the active use of YouTube is a form of curating and "Different people’s 'playlists' are transformed into exhibitions and 'tagging' becomes a process of random archiving."

For PULSE PLAY>Random Rules, Fokidis has invited several emerging and established artists to create their very own playlists thereby presenting these artists not only as artists, but as curators and as collectors as well. Artists include Andrea Angelidakis, Aids 3D, AVAF, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Erick Beltran, Keren Cyter, Jeremy Deller, Cerith Wyn Evans, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, Dora Garcia, Rodney Graham, Annika Larsson, Matthieu Laurette, Ingo Niermann, Miltos Manetas, Ahmet Ogut, Angelo Plessas, Lisi Raskin, Linda Wallace. The selections will be available simultaneously in the video lounge at the fair and online as a YouTube Channel.