Contemporary Chinese Art has been cerebrated in the midst of Contemporary Art boom. Political problem of Tibet has been brought into daylight accompanied by the opening of Beijing Olympic. In between these two, there is still an unknown identity that has been struggling into the light of recognition – it is the existence of the Tibetans who were born and taught under the Maoist Chinese government of post-1966 Cultural Revolution.
Gonkar Gyatso is one of these Tibetans; he has been making art works in London on the subject of his dual identity of “Tibet” and “China”, ever since he has learnt Contemporary Art in Beijing.The serial photography work “Life” consists of four self-portraits of the artist himself, each of which presenting him in different yet crossing over cultures – pre-Cultural Revolution, post-Cultural Revolution, exile in India, and immigration in London – representing the multiple-figure of the artist.
It could be argued that this work symbolises the identity dilemma of the artist, whose works were influenced by the traditional Tibetan Buddhist Arts yet criticised by the exile community of Tibet in India as being “improper” to the sacred art; i.e., being rejected from the community where his ethnic origin resides, the figure of the artist has been simultaneously split and integrated between “Tibetan” and “Chinese,” calling for the recognition of its unique existence. The unrecognised minority existence of an identity = subjectivity is demanding the possibility of creation and recognition of a new singular identity that consists of plural subjectivities.
(*The image has been retrieved from the artist's own web site for non-commercial purposes, and its copyright belongs to the artist himself.)
(*A modified version of this article has been published in "invisible man / paper" at G/P Gallery in Tokyo and Institute of Contemporary Art bookshop in London.)
While the planet has been heated up in the midst of global warming, fashion world has been spiced up with a rise of what is called “ethical fashion” – fashion that generates human and environmental sustainability.
estethica is an international exhibition of high-end sustainable fashion brands that has been part of the London Fashion Week, which has now leached its fourth season in September 2008.
Having achieved the dramatic change of consciousness and attention in the fashion theme, is ethical fashion the trend of the moment now?A conversation I had with Orsola de Castro, a curator of the estethica and a designer of From Somewhere, has provoked a completely fresh answer to this question.While she has agreed that there is certainly a movement of “eco” at the moment, she argues that the green “trend” of ethical fashion is not a “trend” on a level that will be disappeared as a new season comes and goes by.Rather, she claims that “it is a shift than a trend” that is accelerated by the public’s consciousness.“The consumer and the public are demanding other alternatives and other solutions. And students coming out from colleges are not that happy to think that their clothes are being manufactured in a sweatshop in Asia,” she says.
What is more, from a Hymalayan-inspired progressive Indian designer NITIN BAL CHAUHANto Phibiones by Antonello that employs traditional Italian embroidery methods, the styles and tastes of clothes that the designers are showcasing at estethica are incredibly varied.As you can see, “we cannot be the same trend” she added.
NITIN BAL CHAUHAN
Antonello Tedde from Pibiones by Antonello
“Now, it is going to take incredibly a long time to change the fashion industry from within, but this is what we are talking about.We are talking about providing an alternative, to an industry which has been exploited, which has been polluting, and which has been greedy.And operating a change from inside and the reality is that it is happening.It is the public definitely is responding to this.” Estethica has now opened a whole new era of fashion industry.
This blog will be an online archive of my bilingual journalistic writings and diaries from the past as well as the present, noted through the eye of art and ecology.
Hence, the content of the posts will be on anything that weaves the world into deep, complex, yet fascinating realities that are always in a stateof FLUX.
I'm an Arts PR/Administrator working for a Contemporary Tibetan Artist Gonknar Gyatso.
Currently working on projects of various fields and mediums - interview & documentary video making, journalism & experimental writing, exhibition curation & event co-ordinations, art & experimental music performance, fashion sales and etc.
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