Taiping Tianguo: A History Of Possible Encounters
The exhibition A History of Possible Encounters was conceived by Para Site and first shown in Hong Kong in 2012. It subsequently traveled to SALT Istanbul, NUS Museum Singapore, and e-flux New York. The catalog was designed by textandpictures and co-published with Sternberg Press in 2015. Proto Grotesk is used throughout. It’s paired with Monotype Baskerville for captions and obliqued Hobo for inline emphasis.
How did Ai Weiwei, Frog King Kwok, Tehching Hsieh and Martin Wong—four artists of Chinese heritage hailing from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and San Francisco, respectively—all end up in New York in the heady 1980s? By considering them together, what might we learn about their practices and this storied time and place in art history? With these questions in mind, Taiping Tianguo: A History of Possible Encounters takes nuanced glimpses of the artists’ overlapping experiences, networks and friendships. Including a rich collection of photographs of the artists’ work, a timeline (1841–2011) charting general history, art history and biographical information from the exhibition, and essays by Hong Kong curator Doryun Chong, Para Site director Cosmin Costinas, among others, this book underlines the political and gendered nature of the music/art scene in New York art of the 1980s and the simultaneous emergence of contemporary Chinese art.
6¾×9½ inches / 144 pp (47 b&w and 69 color) / ISBN: 978–3–95679–116–1
