Billy Tang’s Top Picks from Frieze Seoul Viewing Room 2023
The Executive Director and Curator of Para Site highlights deeply moving works by international artists including Pacita Abad, Xiyadie and Yuko Mohri
The Executive Director and Curator of Para Site highlights deeply moving works by international artists including Pacita Abad, Xiyadie and Yuko Mohri
SHINRO OHTAKE
UK/HK22 13, 2022
Printed matter, photograph, ink, felt-tip pen, pencil and metal on paper
39.37" x 27.95" (100 cm x 71 cm)
Presented by Take Ninagawa
“Shinro Ohtake once formed a music and art group called Puzzle Punks with the singer Yamantaka Eye from the noise band Boredoms. In his latest series of medium-format collages, UK/HK22 (2021–), Ohtake reflects on his formative experience in London and Hong Kong in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where he began his legendary ‘Scrapbooks’ project. It’s an interesting snapshot into the porous boundaries shared between art and the world of experimental noise.”
PACITA ABAD
Strange Fruit, 2002
Oil, painted cloth, painted tin stitched on canvas
40.24" x 28.74" x 2.01" (102.2 cm x 73 cm x 5.1 cm)
Presented by Tina Kim Gallery
“It has only been until recently that Pacita Abad's work has received wider visibility internationally. A series of recent exhibitions have showcased her prophetic ability to weave together a defiant political energy with various traditions and cross-cultural influences from across Asia. Having recently visited the painted bridge in Singapore that she created near the end of her life, I found this work particularly moving to see.”
XIYADIE
Joy (Happy Together), 2018
Papercut with water-based dye and Chinese pigments on Xuan paper
18.07" x 18.07" (45.9 cm x 45.9 cm)
Presented by P21 Gallery
“A self-taught artist, Xiyadie—whose name means ‘Siberian butterfly’ in Chinese—has created a singular language all his own using the folk tradition of paper-cutting. Through this intricate practice, the artist expresses depths of emotion and empathy that reflect the many ups and downs of his own life. The results, unapologetically queer and also joyous, speak for themselves.”
JACQUELINE KIYOMI GORK
Noise Blanket No. 17, 2023
85.98" x 90" x 2.76" (218.4 cm x 228.6 cm x 7 cm)
Presented by Empty Gallery
“Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork is an artist that likes to explore both the symbolic and physical qualities of sound through performance, interventions, and sculptures, often blurring their boundaries. This latest iteration of the ‘Noise Blanket’ series resembles a hand-made kimono. It’s scaled to larger than life size to connect the functionality of clothing to a conversation with architecture. Drawing on their parallels as protective and immersive structures regulating our bodies, Gork riffs on both the handmade and artificial to create a camouflage aesthetic. It feels like a painting as much as it does a protective blanket, something that insulates energy, voids out unwanted noise, and orientates our senses in another way.”
YUKO MOHRI
Decomposition, 2022
Speaker, wood pedestal, seasonal fruits
23.62" x 23.62" (60 cm x 60 cm)
Presented by Yutaka Kikutake Gallery
“Yuko Mohri has such an eclectic range of influences, and the work is able to bounce around so many conversations and motifs found in both historical and contemporary art. It makes sense to find out that the artist cites Buddhist kusozu (‘nine-stage paintings’), a genre of painting depicting corpses in the gradual process of decay and disfigurement, as a point of departure for this work. I recently experienced the work in an enclosed setting. Her take on kinetic art is so imaginative. Taking things you might commonly find in a fruit bowl, she taps into the materiality of our daily life to create an experience that is both eery and sublime at the same time.”
About Billy Tang
Billy Tang is Executive Director & Curator at Para Site, Hong Kong. He was previously Senior Curator at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, and Curatorial Director at the artist-run Magician Space in Beijing. Writing contributions have appeared in ArtAsiaPacific, Leap, Spike Magazine, Terremoto and Mousse Magazine.
FURTHER INFORMATION
About Frieze Viewing Room
Frieze Viewing Room is a free digital platform, connecting global audiences with Frieze's galleries and artists.
Opening to all from August 30-September 12, the Viewing Room is the catalog for the fair and offers fair visitors a preview of the wealth of gallery presentations coming to Frieze Seoul 2023, as well as the chance for audiences around the world to experience and acquire the artwork on show.
Frieze Seoul
Frieze Seoul returns to COEX from September 6–9, 2023. Discover the best art from more than 120 leading galleries from across Asia and beyond. Located in the Gangnam district in the heart of Seoul, the fair runs alongside Kiaf SEOUL, South Korea’s leading art fair.
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