In the display window of a Copenhagen gallery named ArtPusher, a neon artwork depicted a larger-than-life Chanel-style perfume bottle that reads “N’19 COVID CHINA.” In recent days, the work has been denounced onsite and online as racist, but the gallery owner and artist Søren Vilhelm, who goes by “ArtPusher,” has doubled down instead of issuing an apology.
Leading the protest against the racist artwork is Xue Chen, an art student in London who happened by the gallery during a visit to Copenhagen. Using lipstick and wrap paper from a local supermarket, she scrawled “Racism” and the phrase “This is art too, enjoy” alongside a drawing of the bottle with the words “Respect nature!” (Chen explained to Hyperallergic that COVID-19 comes from nature and is not the product of human design). She posted a video of the action on Instagram.
“If a work of art is based on the sufferings of a nation and displays hate speech against innocent people, it must be wrong, needs to be criticized, and needs to be corrected,” Chen told Hyperallergic.
Earlier today, January 4, ArtPusher retorted with an Instagram post showing a new work in the gallery window, this time replacing China with “North Jutland” (Denmark’s northern peninsula). “Can you be racist against yourself is the big question? Now I’m just waiting for hordes of offended Danes,” he wrote in a caption for the post.
The artist says he created the image as part of a series of recreations of the iconic perfume bottle which feature the word “Covid” and the names of various locations including London and Paris.
“Calling me a racist is a joke to everybody who follows me and my work,” ArtPusher told Hyperallergic, adding that he used to live in Asia and his wife is Asian. A Facebook post from today shows a printed doormat with a version of the “Covid China” work and the caption reads (with three laughing emojis), “Wonder if my doormat is also racist — feeling thoughtful at Artpusher.”
Furthermore, ArtPusher moved to co-opt Chen’s protest as an artwork for sale under the description “Racism; 23 x 30 cm; Chanel lipstick on plain white paper.” He also listed the maker as a “Chinese tourist.”
Chen posted screenshots of now-deleted comments on the post, in which she asks to be addressed by her name rather than “Chinese tourist.”
In a lengthy comment under the same post, ArtPusher speculated that the activists are “most likely 2 young naive Chinese who were brought up to believe that art should only be beautiful and in no way be critical of anyone” and claimed they misunderstood his work. “As an artist, I cannot take responsibility for other people’s interpretations of my works.”
Chen explained that the gallery is near Edvard Eriksen’s iconic The Little Mermaid statue, one of the city’s top tourist attractions.
“I have deeply thought about what people who come to Copenhagen will think,” she said. “Such art is undoubtedly racial discrimination disguised by the art cloak. If I keep silent, will those people discriminate against innocent Chinese people and even Asian Americans because of such art?”
The Latest
Required Reading
This week, the National Library of France gets an upgrade, finding the enslavers at the US Capitol, the beauty of MetroCards, headsets that kill, a fed-up librarian, and much more.
London Museum Drops $3.5M on Public Toilet
The loo in question is a former Victorian lavatory that could become one of the National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition spaces.
Funding and competitive scholarships are available for the MA/PhD in Art History & Criticism as well as for the MFA in Studio Art.
Mace-Hopkins, who died at age 24 during an artist residency in Scotland, was my partner and collaborator.
What makes Siobhan McBride’s work as a whole interesting is her interest in the ambiguity, suggestibility, and elusiveness of everyday life.
Hear directly from Native American photographers who are defining what it means to be Indigenous today. Attend the program in NYC or online.
Multiple cultural heritage sites of the Native Calusa people were impacted when the Category 4 storm hit Florida last September.
Strange Clay at the Hayward Gallery demonstrates the conceptual and technical innovation of contemporary ceramics with riotously joyful art.
Curatorial Roundtables take place online once a week through April. Don’t miss a special lecture by artist and theorist Hito Steyerl on January 18.
Robert Eckert, who led the Lutz Children’s Museum in Connecticut, has been sentenced to 66 months in prison.
In an open letter, the Society for American Archaeology accused journalist Graham Hancock’s docuseries of disparaging experts while promoting “racist, white supremacist ideologies.”
As the exhibition honoring Black and Brown lives killed by police comes to a close, the Brooklyn art space presents a series of performances and community programs.
Her art demonstrates a grasp of animal nature beyond picturesque figures in a landscape or sentimental stand-ins for human emotion.
The Chinese painter learned the state-sanctioned style of Socialist Realism and then elected to unlearn it in order to reinvent himself.
"artist" - Google News
January 05, 2023 at 05:23AM
https://ift.tt/ON1pl63
Danish Artist's Racist “Covid China” Artwork Draws Outrage - Hyperallergic
"artist" - Google News
https://ift.tt/x9TfCOL
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Danish Artist's Racist “Covid China” Artwork Draws Outrage - Hyperallergic"
Post a Comment