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Curated by Ingrid Chu and Savannah Gorton
Commissioned by Forever
& Today, Inc.
Forever & Today, Inc. presents Never
Give Up The Fruit, a new commission by the international artist
collective Slavs and Tatars. Combining academic field research, history,
languages, and culture with a sense of humor, Slavs and Tatars'
multi-disciplinary work spans installations, publications, printed
materials, artist talks, lectures, and events. Their work is self-described
as a "faction of polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the
former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia."
Never Give Up The Fruit features a newly commissioned installation
by Slavs and Tatars exhibited at Forever & Today, Inc.'s
Chinatown/Lower East Side storefront, and public programs including a talk
by Slavs and Tatars, "Not Moscow Not Mecca" and a children's storytelling
event hosted by education programs partner Abrons Arts Center.
Focusing on Xinjiang, the westernmost region of the People's Republic of
China (also known as "East Turkestan" or "Uyghuristan" to the area's ethnic
Muslim Uyghurs), Never Give Up The Fruit explores the triangulation
of Uyghur culture between the twin ideological poles of communism and
political Islam, Russia, and China. The exhibition takes its title from the
legend of the Fragrant Concubine, the Uyghur Khoja Iparhan, also known as
Xian Fe. Renowned as not only beautiful, but irresistible because of her
enticing honeydew-like aroma, Khoja Iparhan was kidnapped to pleasure the
Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Taken against her will, Khoja Iparhan
refused to submit to the Emperor's desires, and in effect, she "never gave
up the fruit."
Slavs and Tatars' installation takes both the
legend of the Fragrant Concubine and the Uyghur Hami melon as a point of
departure for the concept of resistance and self-preservation. Now
ubiquitous among Forever & Today, Inc.'s neighborhood Chinese fruit
stands, the precious Hami melon was historically traded along the Silk Road
and sent by the Uyghurs as tribute to the Chinese Emperors of the Qing
Dynasty. Featuring hanging green speckled hand-blown glass "melon" lamps
within the installation, the suspended rope-knotted lamps, appearing much
like the melons traded in the ancient fruit markets of Uyghuristan, are
attached to a wooden ceiling structure forming Chinese characters that
translate into "dissimulation."
A concept found often in Shi'a
Islam, dissimulation is a permissible form of deception or strategy whereby
the truth of one's beliefs or convictions is concealed to protect a
believer from imminent harm and injury. The project is the newest
installment of "The Faculty of Substitution," Slavs and Tatars' new cycle
of work begun in 2012, a look at the syncretic and sacred as agents for
change in the material world. Never Give Up The Fruit sees in the
Hami melon a talismanic quality, a fruit of indulgence and resistance at
once, highlighting not only the cultural but also the affective and
sensorial singularity of the Uyghurs.
Slavs and Tatars' talk at
Abrons Arts Center, "Not Moscow Not Mecca" further discusses the notions of
triangulation, substitution, and the particularly progressive approach to
Islam found in Central Asia, and the children's storytelling and coloring
session features the popular Uyghur children's tales of Molla Nasreddin.
Future details related to the storytelling session at Abrons Arts Center
will be posted on Forever & Today, Inc.'s website.
Slavs
and Tatars' solo exhibitions include The Museum of
Modern Art, New York (2012); Secession, Vienna (2012); Neuer Aachener
Kunstverein, Aachen (2011); and Netwerk Center for Contemporary Art, Aalst
(2009); among others. Group exhibitions include 9th Gwangju Biennial,
Gwangju (2012); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); New Museum, New
York (2012, 2009); 10th Sharjah Bienniale, UAE (2011); Konsthall C,
Stockholm (2011); Kunstverein München, Munich (2011); Salt Beyoğlu,
Istanbul (2011); Tate Modern, London (2011); Witte de With, Rotterdam
(2011); ARGOS centre for art and media, Brussels (2010); BAIBAKOV art
projects, Moscow (2010); Frieze Art Fair Sculpture Park, London (2010);
Goethe-Institut, New York (2009); Casco Projects, Utrecht (2008, 2006);
NCCA, Moscow Biennale of Young Artists, Moscow (2008); Art Metropole,
Toronto (2007); Colette, Paris (2007); Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art,
Moscow (2007); and Printed Matter, Inc., New York (2007); among others.
Their work has been featured in publications including 032c, Art
Asia Pacific, Artforum, ArtReview, Bidoun,
Fillip, frieze, The Guardian, Kaleidoscope,
Manifesta Journal, Metropolis M, The New Yorker,
New York Magazine, and The New York Times among others. Their
works are in collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York and
Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, among others.
Forever &
Today, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 with a mission
to curate and commission projects by a single artist, collective, or
collaborative entity, extending opportunities to create new work and engage
diverse audiences through exhibitions, site-specific installations,
performances, publications, and educational and public programs. Sponsored
by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 501(c)(3), Forever &
Today, Inc. currently inhabits a storefront located on the cusp between New
York's Lower East Side and Chinatown.
Slavs and
Tatars: Never Give Up The
Fruit is made possible in part with public funds from
the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and
administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Additional support
provided by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Forever & Today,
Inc.'s education programs partner is Abrons Arts Center.
Special Thanks to Jonathan Durham and Carolyn Sickles, Abrons Arts
Center; Thomas McKean; Krzysztof Pyda; and The Third Line, Dubai.
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