¡NOW-TIME¡ by Alma Tischlerwood (2021)
*an abridged version of Alma Tischlerwood's text was originally published in Sublime Magazine, https://sublimemagazine.com/say-to-day
¡NOW-TIME¡
Is ‘Say.To.Day’ an experiment, a quantum superposition, an exercise or a work of art? Time will tell. We say that time flies, because what we say today cannot be repeated in the same way. Tomorrow, when we try to recall today, we will find that it has turned into yesterday and our memories will have found a new orbit. Even with backup files, nothing stays the same. Say it today, before it’s too late. ‘Say.to.Day’ celebrates the accelerating pace and mood of the moment. It is a collaborative single artwork that rides two horses at thesame time. One is a website, the other can be found on Instagram, where the work is announced as “multi‐lingual & cross‐territorial architecture created by Hong Kong curator, Ying Kwok and Japanese artist, Yutaka Inagawa. Welcome on board!
I click, tap, swipe and look at my screen drifting deeper and deeper into their piece on Instagram. The sheer vibrancy of the colours refreshes. Although the Squares are flat and monochromatic, it feels like strolling around in an airy, light‐filled space. The breeze that blows across the squares is notable. I can sense dark hollowed chambers beneath the clear, cool abstract shapes. The mood is tectonic though it also feels like opening a box of chocolates. How many more layers are there and where are the best ones? In the structures beneath the surface there are images in abundance, showing lines, textures, but also amazingly vivid rocks, vegetation and everyday objects. Each one is photographed outside its context. Some inhabit a domain almost beyond the reach of language.
Martin Heidegger has put it in his essay “The Origin of a Work of Art”, this way “The artist is the origin of the work. The work is the origin of the artist. Neither is without the other. Nevertheless, neither is the sole support of the other. In themselves and in their interrelations artist and work are each of them by virtue of a third thing which is prior to both, namely, that which also gives artist and work of art their names — art.” Duchamp invokes a fourth player in his famous essay “The creative Act”, citing the artist who lives today plus the future spectator who lives in the artist’s tomorrow. He says: “To all appearances, the artist acts like a medial being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to clearing.” In today’s terms, perhaps the labyrinth can be identified in the unplanned connections that connect us alltogether in the global network. Since there is no longer a dominant narrative, we each find our own ‘clearing’ by staring at the spaces between disconnected assets.
In a challenging year hit by COVID‐19, it is not surprising that not only creators but also museums, galleries and art fairs are turning to the ‘digital’ to serve their purposes. Perhaps digital art will rise up and eat up the so‐called real world. A few weeks ago, a large composite image made up of 5,000 individual JPEGs was auctioned off at Christie's. Until then, the unknown artist himself says that most of them are "rubbish". Nevertheless, the work fetched $69 million at auction. Undoubtedly sex and money is still the best way to make the headlines. However, it is difficult to define the actual "work" because the buyer is purchasing a unique digital token, not a physical image or form. The actual “picture” is declared to exist as a hybrid entity that includes the virtual pictureand the unique digital code that stands as a claim to its provenance. The demand for "Non Fungible Tokens" (known as "NFTs") might remind us of the tulip mania in 17th century Holland, or the American gold rush in the 19th century. In terms of investment, NFTs are hybrid entities that combine elements of original artwork and unit‐based currencies. As such, they are designed more for trade than for pleasure. Basically, they are intended to stimulate socially useless speculation in a global market, with little regard for climate change. Currently, Bitcoin is responsible for nearly 37 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year. This is equivalent to the annual carbon footprint for the entire country of New Zealand.
As I explore the ‘Say.To.Day’ website again, I stumble across more delights and curiosities that may reveal another layer of sweets in my digital chocolate box. Am I in a sprawling open‐air stadium? Perhaps it is part of a skyscraper adorned with drawings, surface textures, video clips, viewpoints and a jumble of everyday objects aside intriguing words. A beautiful space permeates the squares and abstract shapes, revealing another layer of images. Perhaps I ate another layer of delicious chocolates and came across another layer hidden underneath. There is a beautiful sensitivity instead of the buzz of trading numbers and numbers as it presents the viewer with qualities, albeit in a rather perplexing way. On each of the many visits, I found more unexpected things that I had not seen before. In the navigation menu words are paired, up and down, upside down or backwards, there are keys and common structural elements in the pairs. Some of the terminological content is phonetically, poetically, semantically or structurally matched. As the artist says: "We wanted to create a sense of illogical and nonsensical, in a way a poetic zone. To create something illogical, I have to have a certain amount of logical elements, because being illogical is different from being chaotic. So I wanted to create another level of decipherability within two parallel lines of navigation menus by manually applying a different formula to create a pair."
The artist and curator behind 'Say.To.Day' originally met in London, where they studied art at Chelsea College of Art & Design London. Eventually, one of them changed hats from artist to curator, but they don't see it as a borderline, but as something that can be crossed and brought back into focus when lost.
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Ying Kwok| (郭瑛)
is an independent curator from Hong Kong known for her original curatorial approach. Her work focuses on the"boundaries of collaboration" between curators, artists and the community. She works with a wide range of arts and cultural institutions locally and internationally, from artists' initiatives to art festivals, museums and the commercial sector. Her research‐based curating often synthesises different art forms in contemporary visual art, from site‐specific commissions to performances, film and video. Kwok founded the Art Appraisal Club in 2014 with a group of local art professionals to promote critical thinking and art discussions in Hong Kong. The group provides regular exhibition reviews with articles in magazines, various cultural networks and their own bilingual magazine, Art Review Hong Kong.
Ying Kwok obtained a BA Fine Artfrom the Chinese University Hong Kong and an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK.
Yutaka Inagawa | (稲川豊)
Associate Professor at Onomichi City University, born in Tokyo, currently lives and works in Onomichi, Japan. Inagawa's works present the viewer with ambiguous, shape‐shifting modules that live in a hyper‐digital world—physical and digital manipulations coexist as core elements of his practice. The artist on the joint collaboration: "I wanted to test how far we could push our conversations. The whole enterprise was very meaningful in terms of the rich exchange of ideas with my friend Ying. I found this sense of personal connection and trust fundamental to a meaningful collaboration that went far beyond an artist and curator working together during the process.”
Yukata received an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK in 2014 and a BA in Painting from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1997.
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