<read> Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
There are few books on Asian contemporary art written in English, but they are all wonderful. I'll teach you stealthily.
This page would be changed and corrected in the future.
In October 2022, I went to Kaohsiung, Taiwan to see my friend's artist exhibition. And also I met Hong Kong artist Annie Wan at the time. "Long time no see!", she gave me a book.
Annie Wan “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”, Centre for Research and Development in Visual Arts, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2022 (cover)
This book is Annie's exhibition catalog and records at Hong Kong House in the pavillion of Echigo Tsumari Triennale. Ah!!
Although 2019 is not the year of the Echigo Tsumari Triennale. Hong Kong House opened in 2018, and Annie was chosen to represent Hong Kong in 2019, the second year. I don't remember exactly when I heard about this project. But as I wrote in <research> Japan(6) , I have something to do with Mirai and her family living in the Echigo Tsumari Triennale area. Annie's art works are ceramics. She heard Echigo Tsumari's local people about their food, and she shaped the image. So I asked Mirai and her family, "A Hong Kong artist is looking for a collaborator, please help her!"
Mirai was also interviewed, and the farmer who happened to come to Mirai's house was interviewed on another day, and more... Like this, Annie was doing interview research in April 2019.
Interview and Research, April, 2019
After that, I went to see Annie's exhibition, which opened on August 10th, with Mirai and her family. Annie's artworks are attractive for me, for example, at interview, Mirai said she had wanted to eat "white hot rice" in the hospital. In the exhibition place, I saw pastel-colored monochromatic ceramic "white rice in bowl". Many of those Annie’s ceramic works lined up on the desk. Annie presented artworks which shared interviewer's daily life and memories based on interviews.
When I got this exhibition catalog from Annie in Taiwan, I suddenly remembered it all. When I open the book, the snowy area of Echigo Tsumari area appears like a memory album. At the same time, what bothered me was the language/font written there.
Annie Wan “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”, Centre for Research and Development in Visual Arts, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2022 (part)
There are three languages used in this book. Annie is Hong Kongner = Cantonese, Exhibition is in Japan = Japanese, global language = English. Asian countries and regions are close by geography, but each language is various. As you can see, these fonts are completely different. But Annie and her artworks crossed the border, beyond languages, and connected Hong Kong with Echigo Tsumari, Japan. This book proves it exactly.