|
It's Saturday's 'S-Class' show jumping championship in Ladeburg,
once again presented by the artist-duo Jay Chung and Q Takeki
Maeda––one an American and the other Japanese. They have worked
together in collaboration for 10 years … since exactly 2002. They've
had many international exhibitions in galleries and museums. In Berlin,
they are currently represented by the gallery Isabella Bortolozzi. And on
the occasion of their 10 years of working together, they are endowing the
prize … of the Saturday show jumping championship of
2012.
And if you have a look around the edge of the
parcours… to symbolize their 10 years of working together
… swaying in the wind of Ladeburg, 4 flags—10 flags,
sorry, 10 flags—in 10 different colors. And maybe have a look, it's
very funny: horses are shown with very, very different …
hats.
On the one hand, this is meant to represent the
variety of their ideas, on the other, the variety of ways that exist to
work together with the horse.
–12. Reit- und
Springturnier, Ladeburg, 2012
In the months preceding
their first major solo exhibition in the United States at REDCAT,
Berlin-based artists Jay Chung and Q Takeki Maeda endowed the prize for the
"S-Class" show jumping championship in Ladeburg, Germany. Having worked
together since 2002, Chung and Maeda's presentation of the award marked the
tenth anniversary of the artists' collaboration, which began with Modus
Tollens (2002), a work that framed their friendship as the basis of
their artistic practice. The commemoration of the artists' ten-year history
extends the durational logic of this earlier project and points to their
own artistic history as a potential working material. In this instance, the
artists use the time that has elapsed over the course of their ongoing
relationship as the starting point for a new artwork.
For the
exhibition at REDCAT, Chung and Maeda present the ten flags that discretely
framed the event in Ladeburg. Each flag depicts a different drawing of two
horses wearing the same hat, accompanied by the words "10 Years of Jay
& Q" in an ornate script. The flags take on an unassuming style and
manner to render the commemoration of the artists' career into an
understatement, a gesture further reflected by the modest scale of the
event in Ladeburg.
In addition, a new video produced for the
exhibition at REDCAT translates a selection of recent and historical
artists' statements into a choreographed monologue performed by an actor.
Culled together to form a single voice, the statements express an ongoing
generational dissatisfaction and disillusionment with younger artists.
Brought together in this context, the two projects by Chung and Maeda come
to represent the processes by which an artist and artwork are deemed
mature, and how a general fear of cultural decline and loss of idealism is
inherited from one generation to the next.
Jay Chung (b. 1976;
Madison, WI) and Q Takeki Maeda (b. 1977; Nagoya, Japan) currently live and
work in Berlin, where they have been based since studying together at the
Städelschule in Frankfurt. Their work has been included in numerous
international exhibitions in such venues as Kunstverein Frankfurt; CCA
Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Konsthall
Malmö, Sweden; and Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich.
Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Cabinet, London (2011);
Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin (2010, 2006); House of Gaga, Mexico
City (2009); Cubitt Gallery, London (2008); Künstlerhaus Stuttgart,
Germany (2007); and Museum of Modern Art, Bologna, Italy (2006).
The exhibition is funded in part with generous support from Stacy and
John Rubeli; Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin; Cabinet, London; House of
Gaga, Mexico City; The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles; and the
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles.
Gallery at REDCAT aims
to support, present, commission, and nurture new creative insights through
dynamic projects and challenging ideas. The Gallery presents five
exhibitions every year, often of newly commissioned work that represents
the artist's first major presentation in the U.S. or Los Angeles. The
Gallery also maintains an active publishing program producing as many as
two major monographs per year. Proceeding from the geographic and cultural
specificities of Los Angeles, its program emphasizes artistic production of
the Pacific Rim—namely Mexico, Central and South America, and
Asia—as regions that are of vital significance to California. The
Gallery aims to facilitate dialogue between local and international artists
contributing to a greater understanding of the social, political, and
cultural contexts that inform contemporary artistic practice.
Gallery at REDCAT is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6pm or
until intermission. It is closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to
the Gallery at REDCAT is always free. REDCAT is located at the corner
of W 2nd and Hope Streets, inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in
downtown Los Angeles (631 W 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012).
|
