Gu Wenda (Wenda Gu), united nations – babel of the millennium

During my visit to SFMOMA in April, I was thrilled (yes, literally!) to have the opportunity to see Gu Wenda’s united nations – babel of the millennium. This monumental installation filled the atrium over the lobby and was visible through openings in the wall from all the floors above. Light from  the occulus overhead was captured and diffused by these ethereal translucent panels, creating a peaceful and serene environment that made me forget my intended mission of rushing through the entire museum as fast as possible so I could see everything in my limited time there, and to just stop – to be still for a time and just allow myself to experience it.

Originally created in 1999 specifically for this museum, this work is the fourteenth installment in Gu’s united nations series. For 20 countries chosen for “their historical and political importance,” Gu decided to create “monumental installations and land arts to capture each country’s identity, building on profound events in each country’s history” as well as some transnational, or “universal” works.  The series “explores such notions as transculturalism, transnationalism, and hybridization.” 1

With his trademark disdain for the use of capital letters, Gu explains his motivation for the project:

it is such a special journey to create the worldwide art project united nations. a journey that has developed through cultural, political, ethnic, and artistic experiences: as a red guard who painted revolutionary posters during mao’s cultural revolution; for more than ten years working in china; and sixteen years in the rest of the world as an individual artist. encountering diverse races and world cultures while reshaping their monuments, this path has given me a chance to confront what i have always been fascinated with: the egyptian pyramids; the myths of africa; the roman empire; the american adventure; the berlin wall; and china’s silk road and great wall. these spirits have always been the sources of my inspiration.

The texture of interwoven characters appears to impart an important message, but none of it is readable in any language. It looks like an ancient decree whose secrets have been lost to history. The characters form an invented script inspired by English, Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic written language, but they are not readable. The piece relates to the story of the Tower of Babel from the Bible, in which God decided to confuse the language of a united people and scatter them around the earth to thwart them in their efforts to build a tower to Heaven. Gu explains:

by juxtaposing and interweaving of pseudo-english, chinese, hindi and arabic languages, it introduces not only the misunderstandings within a single culture but also in a way symbolically unveils the conflicts of “co-existence” of bio/geo/cultural multism; on other side, “multism” isn’t a new thing after centuries of bio/geo/cultural exchange. the truth is there isn’t “purity” in the world. it is indeed, a fantasy of self awareness and the fear of losing oneself in a classical term of originality. however, by learning other culture isn’t just to enrich self, but simultaneously also to “otherize” oneself as well. so, face this co-existence of fake languages, english speakers cant read english, chinese people wouldn’t recognize chinese etc.. in fact, risk losing self originality and history to reconstruct self by opening self up to be influenced by others, or maintaining virtual purity of self by refusing others’ influences. this is not a new issue, but it is intensified in our daily practice in our era.

At first glance, babel of the millennium looks like a tapestry woven of synthetic fibers, but when viewed close up, it becomes apparent what the primary material really is: human hair. The work consists of over 100 panels made from hair collected from hundreds of barber shops and hair salons from countries all over the world, suspended in glue. Gu works with hair to connect the work to the people, to provide “direct physical contact, interaction, integration, and confrontation with the local population (collecting hair) and their cultural histories (conceptual reference).”

Gu’s earlier works have used other “primal substances” from the human body “which convey highly charged cultural and political significances and taboos.” His interest in them stems from the idea that “pure human body materials have no element of visual or linguistic illusion in themselves. they are the antithesis of art as object exhibited in museums and galleries. they are as  real as the people who look at them and therefore can penetrate us with a deep sense of spiritual presences.”

SFMOMA was kind enough to produce this video showing the installation process and giving further details about the work.

1. Source: Wenda Gu, the divine comedy of our times – a thesis on united nations art project & its time and environment

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Northern California for a whirlwind tour of wine country. On the day we were to return home, we came back to San Francisco with a few hours to spare before our flight. My travel companions, not at all interested in art, had a hankering to sit in a bar and have sushi and beer. As undeniably compelling that sounds, I decided instead to take a quick side trip into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to see the big Garry Winogrand retrospective.

There are more than 300 photographs in the exhibition, about half of which are being seen for the first time, having come from the more than 6,500 (!) rolls of film that he left behind after his death at age 56. Winogrand was an extremely prolific and influential photographer; his preferred subject matter being people going about their daily life on the streets of New York and all over the country. He shot more than 20,000 rolls of film during his lifetime; a number that is difficult for me to comprehend in the days before digital made it so easy. The press release for the show is well worth reading to get an idea of the character and scope of his work and influence.

In 2 short hours, I wasn’t able to see everything I would have liked to, but another exhibit I spent some time exploring was Don’t Be Shy, Don’t Hold Back, a selection of contemporary works that were the gift of collectors Vicki and Kent Logan. According to the overview, “The Logans have been guided in their collecting by a commitment to the work of living artists and a belief that the best contemporary art reflects the culture and society of its era. They are unequivocal in their willingness to engage with artworks that bring to light uncomfortable or challenging subjects that might be easier to avoid than embrace. Over the years they have consistently sought out work that is vigorous and vital by artists whose integrity and intensity have brought new perspectives to bear on conventional assumptions about the art and culture of our time.”

These works include some artists who have been able to make a pretty comfortable living by being “challenging” and controversial, like Tracey Emin, John Currin, and Damien Hirst (obligatory flayed animal head in vitrine looks just as you’d expect). There are some that are quieter and more thoughtful, and one or two that will undeniably make some people squirm, like Jenny Saville’s Hem. A monumental painting, it features “mountainous curves and valleys, highlights and shadows …

[that] land it squarely between landscape painting and the classic subject of the female nude” (from the wall label). Saville, who “turns the objectifying gaze on its head with this fleshly vista which refuses to conform to standards of conventional beauty,” was a favorite of my cohorts in painting classes, both for her subject matter and for her paint handling.

By far my favorite thing about going to an important art museum is seeing in person any work that I’d been familiar with from books or the internet. A good number of the old standbys and favorites on view: Robert Rauschenberg (always LOVE seeing the older ones close up — they seem so familiar now, it’s hard to imagine how they must have seemed back in the context of the time they were first seen), Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, Ellsworth Kelly — and even a real-live Duchamp Fountain (Number 4 in the artist-sanctioned remakes after the original disappeared soon after its creation in 1917). See the black-and-white Cite (1951) by Ellsworth Kelly – so like a beautiful contemporary quilt.

There were a lot of other things I didn’t have time for. I’ll just have to go back again soon.