#tearsofparadise

🙏Thank you Margot Mottaz who has written a great and nuanced feature on my solo show published in Artomity. ✨ Tears of Paradise / Edel Assanti / London / Jan 17 – Mar 18, 2020 / Margot Mottaz / ✨ #GordonCheung #MargotMottaz #EdelAssanti #TearsOfParadise #Artomity @edelassanti @artomitymagazine @margotmottaz (at Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_zDTz-FjDf/?igshid=t8n76dpuq4xr

🔥Show extended to 18 March🔥 Talk with Mark Rappolt is online: https://edelassanti.com/events/21/ 🖖 Thanks to everyone who came to the talk. It was a great conversation with Mark and I am constantly surprised at despite talking about the mega projects of China and the lifting of 800 million people from poverty, better healthcare than the US, over 96% literacy, more infrastructure built than the worlds history, all in a matter of decades, from what was a destitute nation, that some people found it terrifying rather than extraordinary. The audience interaction was fascinating for what was sometimes a reductionist perception via good vs evil and Democracy vs Communism. That the fear of China is inured into the emotional mindset despite the facts of economic miracles and largest human projects in history. More in the video of the talk. 😷🖖 #GordonCheung #MarkRappolt #TearsOfParadise #EdelAssanti #artreviewmagazine (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pD4_plpSb/?igshid=15kcbu360c9sa

TONIGHT: Wed 19 Feb 2020 7pm at Edel Assanti Gordon Cheung is in conversation with Mark Rappolt, editor-in-chief of ArtReview. 🔥 Space is limited. Free. RSVP email [email protected] 🔥 'Tears of Paradise' is Cheung's 4th exhibition with Edel Assanti. Until Sat 7 March 2020 🔥 #GordonCheung #TearsofParadise #ArtReview #EdelAssanti @artreview_magazine @edelassanti @artforum #artforumcriticspick @financialtimes #financialtimescriticschoice #timeout (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8wPJ3rpMqN/?igshid=1ege4edrdh9bt

🔥🔥🔥 I am Artforum Critic’s Pick, thank you Daniel Culpan! 🔥🔥🔥 Culpan poetically focuses on the Dystopic aspects of China’s mega projects by picking out the extreme examples of a nation becoming a Superpower. Im writing to supplement the other conceptual dimensions in the work, where nuances about the largest human projects in history are not reduced to a Good vs Evil narrative or simplified into being about Democracy vs Communism. Geopolitics is a complex moral maze with profound roots of history that determine China’s modernity and future plans. String of Pearls is a US military contractor’s term, thus a US Empire’s narrative, to promote the theory of current and potential overseas military bases, mega infrastructure projects, economic corridors, port or other China geostrategic advantage in the region. String of Pearls refers to the possibility of the Chinese Navy connecting these pearls via maritime routes. The wider complex situation is China being surrounded by over 400 US military bases by a nation that is currently waging a trade war and has invaded and semi-colonised China in the recent past with what was known as the Unfair Treaties. 80% of China’s energy supply comes via The Strait of Malacca, a narrow 890km stretch of water and one of the most important sea lanes in the world that can be choked off in times of conflict. Even if China wanted to exert naval power via these so called Pearls they would be shut down by India’s influence over these areas. Therefore they have invested in infrastructure projects into various ports to ensure multiple ways to deliver energy and trade routes. (text continues in chat) 🔥 Wed 19 Feb 2020 7pm at Edel Assanti Gordon Cheung is in conversation with Mark Rappolt, editor-in-chief of ArtReview. Space is limited. Free. RSVP email [email protected] 'Tears of Paradise' is Cheung's 4th exhibition with Edel Assanti. Until Sat 7 March 2020. #GordonCheung #TearsofParadise #ArtReview #EdelAssanti @artreview_magazine @edelassanti (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8t5YYzlB-L/?igshid=15jtlpi1rivj2

Desert of the Real, 2020 In Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation: "If once we were able to view the Borges fable in which the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly [...] this fable has now come full circle for us, and possesses nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra. [...] It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own: The desert of the real itself..” Xinjiang is the largest administrative region of Northwestern part of China and will be the busiest intersection of the Belt and Road initiaitive (The re-ignition of the silk roads) as it borders 8 nations: Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (9 if you include disputed parts of Kashmir). It has 40% of China’s coal, 20% oil and gas and 20% potential Wind energy farms. The Uighur Muslims have attempted a separatist movement and briefly declared in 1949 independence, East Turkestan, with the support of Soviet Union. In 1990s the collapse of Soviet Union resurged separatist independence that was suppressed by Beijing. This was followed by terrorist attacks which was met with a severe crackdown and the current condition of one of the most high tech surveillance panopticons in China. Alongside algorithmic machine learning face recognition apparatus is also collection of DNA and fingerprints for a complete mapping of human movement whereby ’suspicious’ behaviour can be discerned and flagged for investigation. The sky is a map of the high speed rail of China that in a matter of decades built more than the entire world. In 1945 Xinjiang was 82.7% Uyghur and 6.2% Han Chinese. As a result of the high speed rail network and policy in 2010 census Uyghur account for 45.84% and Han 40.48%. The Golden poplar tree has been used to hold back desertification officially dubbed the Green Great Wall, launched 1978 to continue until 2050. It aims to plant 88 million acres of protective forests, in a belt nearly 3,000 miles long 💧 #GordonCheung #EdelAssanti #TearsOfParadise (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8crix8l50G/?igshid=3vuo8wqrisqi

String of Pearls, 2020 Financial newspaper, archival inkjet, acrylic on linen In 2004, U.S. defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton coined the term “String of Pearls” to describe China’s strategy in the waters stretching south of the Eurasian continent. While the report, “Energy Futures in Asia,” is not publicly available, those with access have consistently cited one line: ‘China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China’s energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives.’ This description is followed by examples, which include the disputed islands in the South China Sea, as well as a series of strategically significant ports, such as Gwadar in Pakistan and Kyaukpyu in Myanmar and an ambitious canal project in Thailand that, if successful, would provide Chinese vessels an alternative to the Strait of Malacca. This allows China alternatives to sea lane choke points controlled by India and USA. China is surrounded by over 400 US military bases and after Hillary Clinton’s declaration of ‘America’s Pacific Century’ when she was Secretary of State, China responded with the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea to effectively create stationary aircraft carriers used to claim disputed territory and to protect the maritime silk route. In the painting the lines depicted like a star map are the ports China has invested into and also depicts an oil tanker route. On the bottom left is the ghost like gunboat of ‘Nemesis’ that was used by Britain to wage war on China to force consumption of Opium under semi-colonial rule that was exploited by other Western powers and Japan whom also invaded. The sacred mountain in the background hovers like an ominous wave. 💧 #GordonCheung #StringOfPearls #TearsOfParadise #OpiumWar #Nemesis #MaritimeSilkRoad (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8W0ko7FF7Z/?igshid=p5xhgwsmqj2z

Towers of Water, 2020 Financial newspaper, acrylic and sand on linen 💧 The Himalayan mountains, otherwise known as the ‘water towers of Asia’ and a sacred mountain hovers over the major river systems of the Tibetan Plateau. China having already built over 84,000 hydro electric dams is also constructing more throughout the Plateau to satisfy energy demands of a developing nation. Control over the rivers accumulates political leverage over all downstream nations. Beyond the human rights issues, widened to a geopolitical perspective, Tibet without an army will always be vulnerable to foreign control which means control over the water towers of Asia and a potential chokehold on China’s water and therefore it’s sovereignty. 💧 ‘Tears of Paradise’ goes on till 7 March 2020. Please RSVP for an in conversation with Mark Rappolt, Art Review editor-in-chief 19 Feb. The discussion will begin at 7pm. RSVP [email protected] to reserve a seat. The event is free, but space is limited. 🌟 Exhibition dates: 17 January - 7 March 2020 Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 6pm 🌟 #GordonCheung #EdelAssanti #Art #TearsOfParadise #TibetanPlateau (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8RFMrRFSEV/?igshid=1pbw4hjprebl3

My show is @timeoutlondon top 3 🌟🌟🌟 must-see art shows: 2️⃣ Like your art apocalyptic? Of course you do, you hip young nihilist, you. Check out Gordon Cheung at @edelassanti 😂 Non-hip young nihilists are very welcome too 😂 #GordonCheung #TearsOfParadise #TimeOutLondon (Edel Assanti) https://www.instagram.com/p/B78ThwolioI/?igshid=14a9o5jererxk