Queens Museum of Art looks east for insight

As 2008 ends, we can all look back at what will undoubtedly go down in the annals as one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory. While not scheduled to coincide with these global transitions, the Queens Museum of Art’s current exhibition, “Reason’s Clue,” seems to add a bit of perspective to our somewhat uncertain times by examining the relationship between past, present and future.
The 6th Century BC philosopher Lao Tzu wrote “…By holding fast to the Reason of the ancients, the present is mastered, and the origin of the past understood; this is called Reason’s Clue.” The eight artists featured in Reason’s Clue from mainland China, Taiwan and the United States - Tu Wei-Cheng; Cui Fei; Hong Hao; Michael Cherney; Zhang Hongtu; Lin Ju, Yang Mao-Lin and Xu Bing - have pursued the deeper meaning of reason’s clue. They present work that is at times both poignant and playful, examining the ideas of past and present, East and West, traditional and contemporary, and even real and fabricated, all of which seem to be extremely topical in realms beyond art.
After premiering at the Lin and Keng Gallery in Beijing this past summer, the exhibition has been very popular since opening at the Queens Museum in September, so much so that Tom Finkelpearl, the museum’s director decided to extend it through January 4, adding a full month to the run of the show.
“We are always looking to bring important international contemporary art to Queens, work that speaks to both the local community who may have ties to where the work is from - in this case, China and Taiwan - and the art world who will admire the opportunity to see artists who might not be able to show to this extent in New York museums,” said Finkelpearl.
“The fact that we are also able to include two important Queens-based artists, Zhang Hongtu and Cui Fei, makes this extra special and further emphasizes our ideal that local and international are one in the same in Queens.”
Given the diversity of the artists in Reason’s Clue, the QMA and guest curator Luchia Meihua Lee, who also curated the 2004 QMA show Nexus: Taiwan in Queens, accentuated the way the eight artists’ work seeks to discover, illuminate and question what lies behind and before them, be that the culture and history of Taiwan and China or various artistic practices, influences and traditions.
Cui Fei’s large-scale paper installations utilizes nature, (twigs, branches, leaves and thorns) to acknowledge the traditional practice of calligraphy without creating or replicating calligraphy. In the center of the Museum’s Large Triangle, Cui’s scroll, Tracing the Origin II unfolds to present an abstract 50-foot manuscript whose language has yet to be unlocked and deciphered but draws upon the known beauty and depth of nature.
Zhang Hongtu’s paintings fuse artistic themes from China’s ancient dynasties and impressionist painting to create fresh yet familiar works of art. Zhang’s installation of 17 paintings at first glance could pass for the famed landscapes of van Gogh or Monet, but upon further inspection, it is obvious that his subject matter depicts the unrecognizable landscapes of ancient China.
Amidst Reason’s Clue, which fills the museum’s entire first floor, is one project that stands alone as far as its popularity with viewers and the scope of the project itself. Taiwanese artist Tu Wei-Cheng has created an entire archaeological installation, one that on first glance appears to be a recent excavation. However, rather than uncovering ancient tools, Wei-Cheng’s discoveries reveal video game controllers, credit card machines, cell phones and other contemporary items that have been the basis of so much of East/West import and export. With their patina of history, the fabricated findings and their theatrically conceived video footage of “professional” commentary create a pointed look at the authority of history.
At a time when we are all looking to the past for a clue of what 2009 may hold in store, try to make the time to see Reason’s Clue before it closes on Sunday, January 4. As for the future of the museum, Finkelpearl is encouraged and reports that this exhibition is the first of many Taiwanese projects that will be supported by the museum’s new Taiwanese Endowment Fund, a program created by the museum and local Taiwanese community and business leaders.