Cang Xin
Art speaks in tongues
Edited by Andrew Hornery with Lenny Ann Low|smh
May 14 2002
A man who licks the world for art, a car park filled with Spanish food, much too well-behaved artists and gushing art dealers ... it's Biennale time in Sydney again, and on Sunday night Spike got a glimpse of what to expect.
An amalgamation of 14 South Sydney galleries, calling themselves SOCS (South of Cleveland Street, fondly imitating New York's art district of SoHo), pre-empted tonight's official Biennale grand opening gala with an exclusive slap-up dinner and meet-and-greet for international artists and friends.
In one corner of the buzzing concrete-floored space in Waterloo stood Beijing artist and Biennale guest Cang Xin, who in 1996 began using his tongue to lick objects and places as a means of artistic expression.
Cang Xin has licked London, Rome and Beijing, hairbrushes, bricks, passing pedestrians, mobile phones, dead ducks, portraits of Sartre and Nietzsche and pretty much everything sold in the supermarket.
Cang Xin's recent book, Existence in Translation, explains: ''He uses the body to directly communicate with a strange land, concretely experiencing it through his sense of taste ... 'licking' is a symbolic form, as the sensation of taste is perhaps one of the hardest things to put into words."
With the help of a translator, Cang Xin asked Spike how he could meet Aboriginal people during his stay. He would like to lick them or, if they prefer, an object they own. If you fit the criteria and are open to an international tongue experience, contact Spike in the next eight days.
Meanwhile, as Cang Xin's popularity grew (no licking, but plenty of photographs), contemporary art bigwigs from galleries such as Sarah Cottier, Darren Knight and Legge alternately threw back fine wine and scoffed mussel-loaded paella served from enormous pans.
But where were the young art ragers? Despite glimpses of pink hair, leg tattoos and lots of interesting eyewear, only a fleeting dabble with dancing occurred beneath the spray-painted, graffiti-like welcome sign.
May 14 2002
A man who licks the world for art, a car park filled with Spanish food, much too well-behaved artists and gushing art dealers ... it's Biennale time in Sydney again, and on Sunday night Spike got a glimpse of what to expect.
An amalgamation of 14 South Sydney galleries, calling themselves SOCS (South of Cleveland Street, fondly imitating New York's art district of SoHo), pre-empted tonight's official Biennale grand opening gala with an exclusive slap-up dinner and meet-and-greet for international artists and friends.
In one corner of the buzzing concrete-floored space in Waterloo stood Beijing artist and Biennale guest Cang Xin, who in 1996 began using his tongue to lick objects and places as a means of artistic expression.
Cang Xin has licked London, Rome and Beijing, hairbrushes, bricks, passing pedestrians, mobile phones, dead ducks, portraits of Sartre and Nietzsche and pretty much everything sold in the supermarket.
Cang Xin's recent book, Existence in Translation, explains: ''He uses the body to directly communicate with a strange land, concretely experiencing it through his sense of taste ... 'licking' is a symbolic form, as the sensation of taste is perhaps one of the hardest things to put into words."
With the help of a translator, Cang Xin asked Spike how he could meet Aboriginal people during his stay. He would like to lick them or, if they prefer, an object they own. If you fit the criteria and are open to an international tongue experience, contact Spike in the next eight days.
Meanwhile, as Cang Xin's popularity grew (no licking, but plenty of photographs), contemporary art bigwigs from galleries such as Sarah Cottier, Darren Knight and Legge alternately threw back fine wine and scoffed mussel-loaded paella served from enormous pans.
But where were the young art ragers? Despite glimpses of pink hair, leg tattoos and lots of interesting eyewear, only a fleeting dabble with dancing occurred beneath the spray-painted, graffiti-like welcome sign.
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Artist Statement:
Hidden Consciousness Series The Universe is a place where, within living things, consciousness, intellect and spirit reside. These life forms are bound in constant cycles of creation, growth and then decline. I create imagined life forms to illustrate these unending and universal cycles. |
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About Performance Art:
