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| Special
U.S. Premier, November 3, 2002 - December 1, 2002
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Masayuki Kawai: About a Theological
Situation
in the Society of the Spectacle
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QMA
to Participate in New York’s Inaugural Asian Contemporary
Art Week
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The
Queens Museum of Art is pleased to announce a special
U.S. premier of Japanese artist Masayuki Kawai’s
video work About a Theological Situation in the Society
of the Spectacle (2001). Selected by guest curator Cristine
Wang, Kawai’s work will be on view in the museum’s
small theater from November 3-December 1, 2002, as part
of New York City’s landmark Asian Contemporary Art
Week.
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 Video
still courtesy of the artist
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| Asian
Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) is an initiative of the Asian
Contemporary Art Consortium, and brings together an unprecedented
alliance of curators, artists, educators and scholars
in a city-wide program of exhibitions, performances, lectures,
and events. For information on ACAW, visit http://www.asiasociety.org/acaw.
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About a Theological
Situation in the Society of the Spectacle (6 min, 30 sec,
DVD) takes French Situationist theorist Guy Debord’s
seminal text, Society of the Spectacle (1967), as its
main point of departure in a critique of the myths of
"life" and "personality" in contemporary
Japanese pop culture. Debord’s work remains one of
the great theoretical texts on modern-day capitalism,
visual culture, and the influence of the media over the
evolution of social relationships. Kawai states: "I
use Augustinus' theology of "the Trinity" as
an analogy to analyze and critique the situation, and
quote images from the spectacle to adopt a form of exaggerated
imitation of mass media techniques such as quick cutting
& text slogans."
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Masayuki
Kawai was born 1972, in Osaka, Japan, and currently lives
in Tokyo. He received a B.A. in Aesthetics from the University
of Tokyo, and founded the Videoart Center Tokyo in 1999.
A publisher and critic of contemporary video art, Kawai’s
video works have been shown internationally including:
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France (2002); Oberhausen
International Short Film Festival, Germany (2002); European
Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany (2002/2001);
Sydney Film Festival, Sydney, Australia (2001); Microwave
International Media Art Festival, Hong Kong (2001); Leeds
International Film Festival, England (2001); and the Rotterdam
International Film Festival, The Netherlands (2001).
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Cristine
Wang is a New York-based independent curator and critic.
She recently curated Defining Lines, Manifesta 4, Frankfurt,
Germany (2002); Re:Duchamp Exhibition, 49th Venice Biennial,
Italy (2001); Dystopia + Identity, Tribes Gallery, New
York (2001). Wang curated the online exhibition Defining
Lines: <Breaking Down Borders> (2002), included
in the Whitney Museum's "Artport" website. She
was on the International Jury for Oberhausen Film Festival,
Germany (2002), and is on the Committee for the Paris
Biennial (2002).
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| Press Contact:
Carolyn Bane, (718) 592-9700 ext. 147 or cbane@queensmuseum.org.
Cristine Wang, (917) 318-0081, or cristinewang@yahoo.com
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| For more
information about this project, visit www.cristine.org.
Support for this project is gratefully acknowledged
from Name.Space, Progressive IMG, and The Wang Family
Trust. Additional support from Frederieke Taylor. Closing
party sponsored by Clay.
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