The Xijing Men: Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Chen Shaoxiong and Gimhongsok
02.02.2013 - 04.02.2013
The H&R Block Artspace and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas presents the first North American exhibition by the Xijing Men, the internationally renowned, project-based collaborative team of Tsuyoshi Ozawa (Japan), Chen Shaoxiong (China) and Gimhongsok (Korea).
The Xijing Men hail, conceptually, from the fictitious city of Xijing, an imaged political entity in East Asia. The term Xijing is composed of Chinese characters meaning “western capital” (the city’s name would be saikyō in Japanese and suhkyung in Korean). The word play has roots in the names of real cities: Beijing (“northern capital”), Nanjing (“southern capital”) and Tokyo, known in Chinese as Donjing (“eastern capital”).
Since 2006, the Xijing Men have used humor, satire, sarcasm and absurdity to create elaborate performances, drawings, photographs and objects that explore the imagined history, politics, economics and culture of this legendary place.
The exhibition surveys previous work and unveiled I Love Xijing: The Xijing School, new work created during the artist in residency in Kansas City January 23 thru February 3, 2013. Select Kansas City Art Institute students were chosen to collaborate and create with the Xijing Men culminating in an installation and video.
This exhibition is generously funded by the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts, the William T. Kemper Foundation, the Japan Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
