4 DIRECTIONS FROM ASIA

Lee Wen















Arai














Mongkol

Chaw Ei Thein


4 DIRECTIONS FROM ASIA:

Lee Wen
Arai Shin-Ichi
Mongkol Plienbangchang
Chaw Ei Thein

[Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Burma]


Friday, October 8
9:00-11:00 pm
$5.00 Donation

Grace Space is pleased to announce the Performance Artists:
Lee Wen [Singapore]
Arai Shin-Ichi [Japan]
Mongkol Plienbangchang [Thailand]
Chaw Ei Thein [Burma]

LEE WEN

LEE WEN: “Anyhow Blues # 5” Do folk songs belong in performance art? I have just begun a new series of work called “Anyhow Blues” as a follow-up to my earlier “Too Late The Hippie” started in 2007. It’s my take on a conservative society trying to be hip, expressed so neatly in the tourism board’s slogan of ‘Uniquely Hip Singapore’ and is a vehicle for various issues that need voicing out in this troubled world, which I have put into songs and hence the “Anyhow Blues”. I started to play the acoustic guitar again for this project, and hope to work out with a band in time to come, hopefully my guitar playing improves. At the same time I am working on a tongue-in-cheek book where I will outline the “Aesthetics of Anyhow” or the art theory of the ‘anyhow’ principle of art making.
Lee Wen has been exploring different strategies of time-based and performance art since 1989. His work has been strongly motivated by social investigations as well as inner psychological directions using art to interrogate stereotypical perceptions of culture and society. He is a contributing factor in The Artists Village alternative in Singapore and had been participating in Black Market international performance collective.
He is co-organizer of “Future of Imagination” (2003), an international performance art event and “R.I.T.E.S.- Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak” (2009), a platform to support and develop performance art practices, discourse, infrastructure and audiences in Singapore. He has never been to Patagonia.

Lee Wen The Future of Imagination website: www.foi.sg

MONGKOL PLIENBANGCHANG:

Mongkol is a painter, poet and performance artist from Thailand who has performed since 1995. He is part of ASIATOPIA’s committee and has always been involved in art & social movements groups. His performances are usually very intense, mostly dealing with political sphere of Thai politics and Global situations. He has published 2 books of his drawings and poems ‘Inner & Outer’ and ‘the Man numbers Zero’ He has performed in many performance art events & festival, both in Thailand and around Asia.
He has performed in many performance art events & festival, both in Thailand and around asia. He has performances in Japan,Australia,Indonesia,Hong Kong,Macau,Korea,Myanmar,The Phillipines,Vietnam and China.He also participated in Poland’s International art festival ‘Interakje’ at Piatrkow trybunalski and the 8th OPEN International Performance art festival in Beijing;China

Asiatopa website: www.asiatopia.blogspot.com

ARAI SHIN-ICHI

ARAI SHIN-ICHI: I am a 51-year old unmarried man who gets up at 9:00 a.m. and leaves home (88,000 Yen/month: 6m x 8m, telephone bill: 10,000 Yen/month, heat, light and water expenses: 10,000 Yen/month, note: 1USD = 85Yen, 100Yen = 1.2USD ) at 9:20 a.m. Though I declare that I am an artist, basically I set off for work on a crowded train to earn money, like the average salaried worker. The only difference between them and me is that the total number of days I work varies between 5 and 20 days a month, which I have no control over.

ARAI SHIN-ICHI :ARAI lives and works in Tokyo. He has a B.A. in Chinese Modern Literature from Metropolitan University of Tokyo under Mr.llKURA Shohei.Later he majored in printmaking (Intaglio/Copper printing) from 1981 to 1987 under ex Mr.YOSHIDA Katsuro (Mono-ha group).
He also began experimenting in sound, voice and language performance actions since 1982. As a Japan Overseas Cooperative Volunteer he taught at Nyumba ya Sanaa Art school in Zanzibar, Tanzania 1992-94 where he experienced various insights into the relationship between culture and politics in contemporary society. This led to his radical social-political performances today. In his raw and direct style, ARAI's body appears as a site of social tension presented with humor yet biting criticism. Often exposing the conservative and xenophobic cultural tendencies and contradictions in global and local situations. Besides performing regularly in Japan, ARAI has also presented his works internationally and especially in China such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian, Chengdu, Changchun, and Beijing.(Lee Wen)

Arai website (official and unofficial): www.araiart.com

CHAW EI THEIN

Chaw Ei is a performance artist, painter and sculptor. She has been making performance art for years, and I first saw her at the NiPAF - Japan International Performance Art Festival - in 2006. Her work deals with her life experiences, especially her feelings towards her home country. In “Transformed Conversation”, a two person exhibition, New York based artist Brad Darcy and Burma based artist Chaw Ei Thein explored the artist’s self conscious role in the engagement of social and political issues, and the responsibility to communicate perspectives on an aesthetic level.

Chaw Ei Thein website: www.chaweithein.blogspot.com

This event is suported by the National Arts Council of Singapore
Photos below of: Lee Wen [Singapore], Arai Shin-Ichi [Japan], Chaw Ei Thein [Burma]