It is difficult to talk about Maria Taniguchi’s work. Like an archaeologist piecing together artifacts, she unpacks knowledge and experience connecting material culture, technology and natural evolution. Beyond her objects, we are asked to look at their context. Who sees an object? How are we seeing this object? What associations can we make? A lesser-known…

Zhang Ding’s work conveys objects and phenomena that are impossible to describe through language alone. Perhaps the essence of these things is too primal, to the extent that language—artificial and pretentious—cannot touch them. Perhaps the system of these things is too complex, and language cannot communicate their complexity. Substances overcome their physical properties, removing the…

Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss was a fan of painter Nicolas Poussin. He analyzes Poussin’s use of light and composition in painting Echo and Narcissus, and expands on its subject matter. The concept of the echo holds different meanings in different cultures. To the Greeks and Romans, the echo was an impediment to communication; to Native Americans, the…

Artists in many parts of the world spent the 1990s caught up in the historic moment that was the end of the Cold War—what would be claimed as the end of history. Some, like those in the Chinese mainland, were under a prevailing spell as economic as political, which lasted almost to the end of…

LEAP Forum is an initiative of Modern Art, Modern Media Group’s art platform. It is a virtually distributed conference in which speakers and guests meet not at a certain point in space and time but ra…

When you turn on the television in China and flick through some channels, chances are you’ll happen upon several TV series set in Republican-era China. This is nothing new; Republican Fever, as it is …

Every two years, the Guggenheim Museum administers the Hugo Boss Prize. Funded by the eponymous German clothing company, the prize is presented to an artist “whose oeuvre constitutes an outstanding co…

Often, I catch my eyes, sliding easily, as if they rolled on bearings, or had been oiled, off the identical rows of houses of people, and back up to the more peculiar trees. 1. YARVIN DREAMS OF NORWAY…

The harsh realities of an industrializing country with one-fifth of the world’s population create a fertile climate for a unique and diverse cultural discourse. Beijing is a backdrop for real cultural exchange: western theory is debunked over dumpling dinners as Chinese philosophy is integrated, collaborations are conceived as artists walk from one café to another…

Yuko Mohri is an installation artist. Her installations are strange. Under her spell, the exhibition space becomes a self-operating, animatronic stomping ground: chirps, bursts, flashes, and dashes of…

The Beijing art world likes talking to itself and about itself. When the word “Beijing” is part of a seminar title, it does not describe a geographical area, but implies a certain grandnes…

“The novelty of the coming politics is that it will no longer be a struggle for the conquest of control of the State, but a struggle between the State and the non-State (humanity), and insurmountable …

Artist Timur Si-Qin unveils his first solo exhibition in China, “Biogenic Mineral,” at Magician Space in April 2015. For this exhibition, the artist presents the brand Truth by Peace (TBP) in sculpture and photography. LEAP talks to Si-Qin about attractors and their varying forms in his work. LEAP Your work frequently makes use of commercial…

TRANSLATION / David East Truth is the first casualty of the news industry. Kao Chung-Li’s 1983 solo exhibition, held in Taipei at the American Institute in Taiwan—the only way to enter the art world a…

TRANSLATION / Yvette Zhu Before the system for the dissemination and interpretation of artistic discourse was fully developed, it was often enough to simply put forth a concept and realize it. For young artist Zhao Yao, today’s artists need to autonomously and proactively influence the dissemination of this discourse. Above all, he stresses the importance…

Within the current Shanghai Biennale, an artist by the name of Robbie Williams puts on a striking “Solo Show.” According to the official information available, Williams is an artist of Egyptian and Ta…

TRANSLATION / Yvette Zhu A new stage of institutional critique seeks to confront neoliberal market mechanisms. Because of fluctuations between global and regional systems, the circulation of capital around and within institutions is becoming less visible, resulting in critical clashes between artists and various components of the art system that are often more effective than…

TRANSLATION / David East ILLUSTRATION / weiwei Zhang Huan has worked in a 100-person factory—almost a genuine enterprise—in the suburban Songjiang district of Shanghai since 2005. Cai Guo-Qiang’s stud…

TRANSLATION / Daniel Nieh THE PRODUCTIVE ENVIRONMENT “Consumption, as a necessity and as a need, is itself an intrinsic aspect of productive activity.” ——Karl Marx, Economic Manuscript of 1857-1858(1)…

TEXT / Stephanie Bailey TRANSLATION / Connie Kang Lately it feels like all the world’s an art fair. —— Sarah Nicole Prickett（1） When we talk about art fairs, we’re never just talking about art f…