Singapore, August 2016 – ShanghART artist collective BIRDHEAD (SONG Tao and JI Weiyu), started their six-month Southeast Asia Residency program from July 2016. They scheduled to travel around Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and other places, and they will come to Singapore to exhibit their art works created during the journey. Moreover, selecting Singapore as the last and most important stop in Southeast Asia, BIRDHEAD will conduct artists talk with Singaporean artists, which will definitely deepen bilateral exchanges in the field of arts, as well as culture and mutual understanding.
BIRDHEAD’s early works consist of photographic images of everyday life in their hometown of Shanghai. From 2011, they expanded the scoop of shooting to a broader prospective. Each action of gazing and shooting cuts out a space and a time, which also becomes a self-reflection, and it is to say the thousands of photos are thousands times of self-reflection. This action seems to be an exploration of the outside world; however, it is in fact a study of our heart and a constant introspection.
In their opinion, shooting is only a means of expressing emotion, and it is both visual content and various materials that form into BIRDHEAD Language. Through constant photo shooting, selecting and editing photos to create connection and rhythm, through studying the traditional and current techniques, fabricating and mounting photos, to eventually carry and express our emotions in the time we live in.
For BIRDHEAD, Southeast Asia trips may be regarded as an extension and reflection to a greater level. In an “otherness” perspective, artists observe and record their own traces to explore various textures of life. They are tapping into proposition of “self” from far and beyond. Chiang Mai, Ho Chi Minh, Bagan, Phu Quoc Island…all places they travelled contributes an ongoing juxtaposition of traditional and modern, regional and individual influences, foreign “otherness” and native consciousness. Through shooting in Southeast Asia, their world is being constructed into multiple layers, among which they find a better way to connect with the whole world more directly and more deeply.
Artist Introduction
BIRDHEAD (est. 2004), is an artist collective – JI Weiyu (1980) and SONG Tao (1979), were both born in Shanghai, where they also reside and work today. The artists graduated from the Shanghai Arts and Crafts School in 2000. Recent exhibition include: BIRDHEAD- Art Unlimited Art Basel 2016, Basel, Switzerland, (2016); BIRDHEAD- Welcome to BIRDHEAD world again, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); Welcome to BIRDHEAD World Again, ShanghART h-Space, Shanghai (2015); New Photography 2012, MoMA, NewYork, U.S.A.(2012); Reactivation – 9th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai(2012); The 54th Venice Biennale – ILLUMInations, Venice, Italy (2011); China Power Station – part 4, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino, Italy (2010); The World of Other’s: A Contemporary Art Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2008); China Power Station II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007). And their solo exhibitions include: Welcome to BIRDHEAD World Again-Beijing 2012, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing(2012); BIRDHEAD: New Village, EX3 Centro per l’arte Contemporanea Firenze, Florence, Italy (2011); Artist File 2011 The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan (2011); Welcome to the World of BIRDHEAD Again-2010, Guangzhou; Lianzhou (2010); BIRDHEAD 2006+2007 Photography Show, BizART, Shanghai (2007).