Third Realm

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Apichatpong Weerasethakul, “Ghost Teen,” 2009 (courtesy FarEastFarWest Collection)

Third Realm, on view at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver until Nov. 8, paints an exhilarating yet complex picture of contemporary Asian art. 

Originating with the FarEastFarWest Collection, a Shanghai-based organization that commissions and acquires contemporary Asian art, the show’s videos, photographs and mixed-media works are from the early 2000s, when Asian economies were on the rise. 

It was a period of transition and social change and the work reflects many of the region’s internal conflicts, including globalization versus nationalism and modernity versus tradition. 

The show’s title refers to a facet of Buddhist cosmology.

“There are three realms, the third and the highest being the form of no form,” says Polygon curator Helga Pakasaar. “Things are in motion and that’s what’s meaningful.”

The show, curated by Davide Quadrio, who founded FarEastFarWest with Eric Guichard in 2007, draws heavily on satire, symbolism and performance.

Concentration Training Camp by Chinese artist Zhou Xiaohu is cheeky piece of theatre that lampoons globalization and Western culture. His 19-minute video depicts an Amway training session where, thanks to clever staging, participants appear disoriented and upside down.

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FX Harsono, Still from “Writing in the Rain,” 2011 (courtesy FarEastFarWest Collection)

The loss of cultural identity is personal for Indonesian artist FX Harsono. Born in Indonesia but ethnically Chinese, he rails against discrimination in his video, Writing in the Rain. Harsono has almost finished writing his name on glass in Chinese characters when a burst of water washes it away. He continues, defying both the elements and government attempts to marginalize his ethnicity. 

The mural print Ghost Teen is more overt. Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul pulls no punches. His portrait of a young man in a fearsome mask refers to two decades of torture and killings by the Thai military. The young man may or may not be a descendant of victims.

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Cao Fei (Second Life Avatar: China Tracy), “RMB City Opera: But Sometimes I Confuse,” 2009 (courtesy FarEastFarWest Collection)

RMB City Opera: But Sometimes I Confuse, by Chinese artist Cao Fei, blurs the line between fantasy and reality by staging a performance with two humans and their Second Life avatars. She was one of the first artists in China to embrace virtual reality. 

Lu Yang, from Shanghai, explores the intersection of art and science with her video, Wrathful King Kong Core. Heavily influenced by Japanese manga and anime, she superimposes digital images of the amygdala and the hypothalamus, anger response areas in the human brain, over three-dimensional images of an irate Tibetan deity, suggesting even religious figures can transcend the metaphysical realm and enter the digital one.

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Lu Yang, Still from “Wrathful King Kong Core,” 2011 (courtesy FarEastFarWest Collection)

Yet there’s also a desire to return to traditional tropes and techniques. The Chinese duo Ji Weiyu and Song Tao are collectively known as Birdhead. Their Crazy Bird series melds images, symbols and Chinese stamps in 15 small and seemingly innocuous snapshots. What you see is what you get – and that’s the point. The pieces are expressions of design and technique and hold no deeper political meaning. 

The exhibition spans many countries, cultures and religions, but Pakasaar is quick to point out that Third Realm is not just another Asian art show – it seeks to acknowledge the region’s evolving diversity and complexity. 

“There are a lot of different questions and issues at play,” she says.  “It’s not a clear picture.” ■ 

Third Realm at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver from Sept. 4 to Nov. 8, 2020.

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