First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian | teamLab

Name: First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian
Start: 2015-09-04
End: 2015-10-10
Location: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian

PAST EXHIBITION

Sep 04 - Oct 10, 2015Asian Art Museum of San Francisco , San Francisco

First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian

PAST EXHIBITION

Sep 04 - Oct 10, 2015Asian Art Museum of San Francisco , San Francisco

ARTWORKS

Cold Life

A calligraphic series of brush strokes modeled in virtual 3-D space forms the character 生 (Japanese/Chinese for life) which transforms into a tree. As time passes, various life forms begin to grow from within the tree.
 
This artwork was created by peeling away the surface of the artwork Life Survives by the Power of Life, 2011.
 
In computer graphics, and similarly in this digital work, wireframe models created with high levels of data are rendered as 3-D objects. When the surfaces of these computer-generated images are peeled away, their underlying mesh-like structures are revealed. Expressed by the intricacy of this work, teamLab exemplifies 3-D rendering in its stripped-down state while maintaining a highly complex and elaborate construction.

Nature brings us both blessings and disaster, and with the progress of civilization there are benefits and negative implications; nature and civilization are always connected. There is no absolute evil or true beauty. There is no easy way to understand, no simple way to arrange our feelings and our sensitivities. We must face every situation as it comes, to not despair, to face forward, and to go on with life.

teamLab has been working on the Spatial Calligraphy series since the collective formed. Spatial Calligraphy offers a contemporary interpretation of traditional Japanese sho (calligraphy) in an abstract space. It reconstructs Japanese sho in three-dimensional space and expresses the depth, speed, and power of the brushstroke. Butterflies, birds, animals, plants, and flowers appear from the calligraphy expressing the passing of the seasons. According to Zen Buddhist writing, “In all living things Buddha nature dwells.” All things are impermanent and the natural appearance of things is the Buddha nature. What we put into shape is that which we, the living, think is the heart of life.

Life Survives by the Power of Life

The blessings and threats of nature, as well as the blessings and threats of civilization, are continuous. There is no single source of absolute malice, nor can it all be dismissed idealistically. There are no simple answers, and at times it is difficult to process our emotions. Even so, we want to affirm life in all aspects. Life is beautiful.

teamLab has been working on the Spatial Calligraphy series since the collective formed. Spatial Calligraphy offers a contemporary interpretation of traditional Japanese sho (calligraphy) in an abstract space. It reconstructs Japanese sho in three-dimensional space and expresses the depth, speed, and power of the brushstroke. Butterflies, birds, animals, plants, and flowers appear from the calligraphy expressing the passing of the seasons. According to Zen Buddhist writing, “In all living things Buddha nature dwells.” All things are impermanent and the natural appearance of things is the Buddha nature. What we put into shape is that which we, the living, think is the heart of life.

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Venue Details

First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian

Term

Sep 04 - Oct 10, 2015

For Media

Press Kit

ARTIST

teamLab

teamLab (f. 2001) is an international art collective. Their collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world. Through art, the interdisciplinary group of specialists, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, and architects, aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world, and new forms of perception.

In order to understand the world around them, people separate it into independent entities with perceived boundaries between them. teamLab seeks to transcend these boundaries in our perceptions of the world, of the relationship between the self and the world, and of the continuity of time. Everything exists in a long, fragile yet miraculous, borderless continuity.

teamLab’s works are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra;  Amos Rex, Helsinki; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul; and Asia Society Museum, New York, among others.

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Biographical Documents

teamLab is represented by Pace Gallery, Martin Browne Contemporary and Ikkan Art.