As Seen: 2011's Sugar-Coated Art

Most year-end reviews crop up in December. But one of Beijing’s most recognized art connoisseurs says such critiques need more time to ripen.

“I always feel cheated when people publish year-end wrap-ups in December, as these are inevitably submitted in October or November, not really doing justice to an entire year,” says Karen Smith, author of the 2011 art recap As Seen, a book that will be launched tomorrow (Apr 18) at the UCCA.

The book will be the first in an annual series of such year-end reviews. Smith adds that now couldn’t be a better time to write the first of what will be many volumes.

“For me the 2000’s decade was a strange one. So much socio-economic change. The art was all over the place in terms of its style and content. But now most artists are used to the market forces and I sense a return to more ‘artistic’ problems in their practice, asking what art is or can still be in the world today. I already feel that the shows and the works I have seen thus far this year are different.”

The most interesting example looked like the dullest at first glance. Budding artist Song Dong slapped a layer of pale icing sugar not a on a cake, but on an equally white gallery wall for his 2011 work dubbed Waiting. In her book, Smith describes the work and its sweet aroma:

“Waiting… was virtually invisible. This was especially the case for a viewer with a cold, whose sense of smell was not functioning to its usual degree of sensitivity, or if you went towards the end of the exhibition's run when the work had been somewhat altered by the natural process of deterioration.”

Other works covered in the book include the warped portraits of Wang Xingwei, and the brazen "bad" paintings of Zhou Yilun. Smith says she wanted to focus on such emerging talents, rather than recognizable superstars.

“The challenge is to highlight talent … not make a purchasing guide for people who seek to profit financially from the dealing and collecting of famous pieces. Those kind of people have no real interest in the work.”

The book launch of Karen Smith’s As Seen will be held at UCCA on April 18 at 2pm. For more information contact the books publisher, hinabook@163.com.is