From 98B COLLABoratory:
We are pleased to announce 98B COLLABoratory’s partnership with Bamboo Curtain Studio (BCS) in Taipei, Taiwan. The BCS was founded in 1997 by Hong Kong ceramic artist / curator Margaret Shiu. It facilitates research, creation and presentation of new work through residencies and exhibitions. It is a community-based organization that emphasizes interaction with other artists, curators and writers. BCS aims to promote cross-cultural exchanges by providing a meeting point for visitors from national and international art related fields, for short visits or specific projects. It is a member of Res Artis, initiator of Intra Asia Network for AIR & Artists’ mobility, regional representative of International Network of Culture Diversity and Arts Network Asia, and the country representative for World Culture Forum Asia-Pacific.
Fara Manuel is the Filipino artist participating in the initial Artist Exchange with BCS. Manuel is a printmaker, graphic artist and photography enthusiast, as well as an avid cyclist and a vegetarian. She finished her BFA in Visual Communication at the University of the Philippines (UP). In 2008, she started teaching at the same state university, handling subjects such as printmaking, graphic design, art theory and humanities. The materials she would like to explore are organic and her primary medium is mixed media (print, photomontage, sculpture) and new media. In her MFA thesis, Fara explored the intersections between humanities and geography; how the body is essentially a kinesthetic tool for cognitive mapping.
She was part of the 2nd 98B ESC Projects in 2013 with her mixed media sculptures.
In line with this partnership, 98B will be hosting Po Chih Huang during his stay in Manila. His residency will also coincide with his participation in Project Glocal.
Huang’s diverse artistic practice principally explores issues such as agriculture, economics, popular consumption and production, depicting and surveying local history and the evolution of society and the environment. His many shifting roles in society – from project executive to manual laborer to documentary writer – have become key elements in his recent art projects. Seeking points of convergence among these many experiences to serve as his text, he reassembles the fragmented historical and cultural contexts in the background of his experiences, and manufactures daily consumer goods (or events) as “counterfeits” that form connections of social communication, with the aim of exploring how these “art (products or events)” can initiate new meanings and definitions within complex social relationships.