SCAF – Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

SCAF’s 2015 programme – Go East, with new work from
Ai Weiwei

2015 promises to be a groundbreaking year for Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) as the gallery partners for the first time with the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) to present Go East – a major two-site exhibition of contemporary Asian art drawn from The Gene & Brian Sherman Collection.

Go East marks a major new undertaking for the Shermans who have never before given such broad access to what is arguably one of Australia’s premier, private collections of contemporary Asian art.

As part of Go East, SCAF will show Yang Zhichao’s Chinese Bible (2009), while AGNSW will feature over 30 major works by artists from China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, India, the Pacific Islands, Philippines and Tibet, many of which have never before been seen in Australia. Featured artists include, Lin Tianmiao, Song Dong, Jitish Kallat, Zhang Huan, and dissident Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, whose newly commissioned artwork will premiere as part of the exhibition.

Yang Zhichao’s Chinese Bible comprises 3000 diaries collected by the artist from Beijing flea markets, written during the early years of communism through to the end of the century. These decades included the dramatic rise and death of Mao, the Gang of Four, and the opening up and broad transformation of China under Deng Xiaoping. These ostensibly private journals written by Chinese citizens give an insight into life under the early years of communism, the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and China’s recent move towards consumerism.

Dr Gene Sherman says, “Go East, while appealing to a cross-generational audience, will also give the younger generation a unique opportunity to see important and significant works by major Asian artists, many of which have not been seen in Australia before. These works afford an insight into a period that has witnessed the dramatic development of Asian contemporary art.”

Go East also sees the publication of three visually compelling and scholarly catalogues.

The 2015 SCAF exhibition programme will also see a series of exhibitions by significant Australian and international artists and architects:

• Fugitive Structures 2015 continues the annual series of temporary architectural pavilions returning to SCAF’s Zen Garden for its third iteration. The pavilion, designed by Israeli architects Sack and Reicher + Muller is a grand, unique sukkah with characteristics of temporality, transience and hospitality. References include the Old Testament story that tells of the Israelites’ 40 year journey from slavery to freedom through the desert to the Promised Land of Israel and the transient shelters used en route – which is celebrated by the annual Jewish festival Sukkot. The architects also reference the remarkable Bedouin tents and this community’s itinerant lifestyle, while celebrating the innovative cultivation of arid landscapes via fabric-covered fruit and vegetable greenhouses.

• Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen: Owner Occupy
  Following on the success of SCAF’s 2013 and 2014 interactive architecturally-inspired gallery projects, Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen’s Owner Occupy will pose questions about the basic relationships between dwelling and ownership in the context of an immersive interactive space. SCAF’s main gallery will feature simple structures of timber and canvas which can be infinitely reconfigured and connected to create individual and collective dwelling arrangements.

• The year closes with Collection+: Christian Thompson. Based in the UK, Thompson is one of Australia’s leading indigenous artists whose photographic, conceptual and performance work occupies the forefront of a new generation of Australian artists whose work explores issues of cultural hybridity, identity, and history. Collection+: Christian Thompson takes as its conceptual starting point the notion of collection and how the meaning and implication of that notion varies amongst the diverse perspectives brought about by the law and traditional cultures, with curator Alana Kushnir further considering the connection of collection to the concepts of possession and appropriation.

2015 Exhibition Dates:

SHAUN GLADWELL

Shaun Gladwell: The Lacrima Chair
A major new commission
(SCAF Project 24)
at SCAF
6 March – 25 April 2015

Collection+: Shaun Gladwell
Curated by Dr Barbara Polla & Prof. Paul Ardenne
(SCAF Project 25)
at UNSW Galleries
6 March – 25 April 2015

GO EAST

The Gene & Brian Sherman Contemporary Asian Art Collection
Curated by Suhanya Raffel
(SCAF Project 26)
at AGNSW
14 May – 26 July 2015

Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible
Curated by Dr Claire Roberts
(SCAF Project 26)
at SCAF
14 May – 1 August 2015

FUGITIVE STRUCTURES

Sack and Reicher + Muller with Eyal Zur: Sway
(SCAF Project 27)
SCAF Zen Garden
21 August 2015 – 12 December 2015

Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen: Owner Occupy
(SCAF Project 28)
SCAF Gallery
21 August – 3 October 2015

CHRISTIAN THOMPSON

Collection+: Christian Thompson
Curated by Alana Kushnir
(SCAF Project 29)
23 October – 12 December 2015

Photo: Gao Yuan