Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War

The 60-year-old Taiwanese video artist Yuan Goang-Ming is currently having his first solo exhibition in the U.S. at the Asian Art Museum.

His global reputation took a giant leap at last year's Venice Biennale where his Everyday War installation at the Taiwan pavilion was reportedly a festival highlight. The Venice show was curated by Abby Chen, who is currently the Head of Contemporary Art at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, and brought the exhibit here, adding a few additional works by the artist. (For an interesting video of the Venice Biennale exhibit that includes interviews with Yuan, Chen, and lots of fancy art fair people sipping glasses of wine, click here.)

Although there are only about 9 works in the exhibit, they are spread out across the huge expanse of the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion, which usually hosts large traveling exhibits. There is also comfortable furniture on which to sit and actually watch the videos that range from about 5 to 15 minutes. Plus, unlike Venice, there are no crowds, which is a luxury.

The videos are trance-like with the camera never panning to the right or left, only forward and backwards, both visually and with time. There is a serenity to them even when they are depicting empty major streets in Taipei during an annual nuclear disaster drill or a bedroom being destroyed in slow motion by gunshots and small explosions (I hope the goldfish survived).

I saw this exhibit briefly when it first opened in April and found it unpleasantly disquieting, but it was more compelling on a second viewing, especially after experiencing the sonic waves from a huge bomb going off in peaceful Palm Springs a few weeks ago.

Speaking of which, beware the dining room table situated in front of a screen featuring Google Street View gone amok. The table is scary.

While leaving I noticed a group of young people, a collective calling themselves Dream State, setting up installations throughout the museum for a "takeover" of the institution this weekend. The group was founded by Spencer Tsang who is pictured above, and the performance schedule looks like fun. Sunday is free admission to the museum, so check it out. Click here for more information on the museum's website.