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| Christopher Ho |

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Christopher K. Ho Yo debo estar contigo" 2009

 

Christopher K. Ho "The Pasture," 2009 Installation view

 

 

Christopher K. Ho "The Pasture #4," 2009 Each 6 x 8 inches Facial Moisturizer on Board

 

 

Paintings from the series The Pasture, 2009, faintly depict 4 x 6-inch pastoral landscapes on 6 x 8-inch boards primed with traditional gesso. The images are based on the 18th-century painter Thomas Gainsborough's work. Instead of paint, the medium is the facial moisturizer "Advanced Marine Biology Night Solution" by luxury Swiss skincare company La Prairie, which developed and built a proprietary above ground aquaculture that mimes the conditions of the deep ocean in order to harvest free-radical-fighting botanicals. The Pasture captures landscapes after having passed through capitalism and emerged on the other side; it presents La Prairie as an environmental radical for inventing, rather than merely preserving, landscapes (the latter as destined to failure as it is tinged with nostalgia). Each painting contains approximately .6 ounces of "Advanced Marine Biology Night Solution."

Las pinturas de la serie El Pasto, 2009, representan sutilment paisajes pastorales de 4 x 6 pulgadas en los "canvo board" de 6 x 8 pulgadas preparados con "gesso" tradicional. Las imágenes se basan en el trabajo del pintor del siglo XVIII Thomas Gainsborough. En lugar de pintura, la tecnica es la crema hidratante facial “solución para la noche de la Biologia marina avanzada” de la lujosa compañia dermatologica "La Praire" de Suiza, que desarrolló y construyó un propiedad sobre la acuacultura que investiga sobre las condiciones del océano profundo a fin de cosechar productos botanicos de lucha-radicales-libres. El pasto captura los paisajes despues de haber sido filtrados por el capitalismo y que emergen en el lado contrario; presenta a "La Praire" como desarrollo radical para inventar, mas que para preservar, los paisajes (estos últimos mas destinados a su destruccion, asi como son teñidos con nostalgia). Cada pintura contiene aproximadamente .6 onza de “Advanced Marine Biology Night Solution.”

 

|EDS| GALERIA is pleased to present Christopher K. Ho’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Et in Arcadia Ego features four landscape-oriented works of diverse media, processes, and materials. The Sight of Death, 2009, is a chine-collé print featuring juxtaposed mountains centered on an expanse of off-white mould-made paper, each cropped from a landscape by Nicolas Poussin, whose 1638 painting Et in Arcadia Ego provides the exhibition’s name. Loosely translated “Even in Arcadia, there is Death,” the reference reflects Ho’s continued interest in exploring the parameters and possibilities of engaged art. In Arcadia, idealism resides in an irretrievable past, not a flawless future; and the atmosphere is infused with human pathos rather than steeped in political promise. The exhibition—which strives to be sympathetic, non-judgmental, and metaphorical—considers such a frame the guidepost for making art in an uncertain age. The paintings from the series The Pasture, 2009, faintly depict 4 x 6-inch pastoral landscapes by 18th-century painter Thomas Gainsborough on 6 x 8-inch boards primed with traditional gesso. Instead of paint, the medium is the facial moisturizer Advanced Marine Biology Night Solution by Swiss skincare company La Prairie, which developed and built a proprietary above ground aquaculture that mimes the conditions of the deep ocean in order to harvest free-radical-fighting botanicals. If Gainsborough depicted the British countryside on the eve of the Agrarian Revolution, The Pasture captures landscapes after having passed through capitalism and emerged on the other side. Each painting contains approximately 18ml of the solution.  In Reverse Engineer Mondrian, 2009, select tiles of |EDS| GALERIA’s floor were removed. An initial pattern was determined using Piet Mondrian’s abstractions. That pattern was then subjected to the “Game of Life,” a process invented by British mathematician John Conway, in which a simple rule set generates seemingly intelligent, organic form. Here, squares in a grid “live” (remain) or “die” (are removed) according to the status of their immediate neighbors; for instance, if a tile has more than three neighbors, it “dies” of overcrowding. A key to the process in the form of a photo-narrative hangs at the top of the stairs. Lesbian Mountains in Love, 2008, a split-screen high-definition video, tells a tale of two mountains—Popocatepetl in Mexico and Mount Rainier in Washington State—who fell in love at the Earth’s core, but emerged in different locations, and now await tectonic plate movement to reunite them. The stillness of the frames—quiet but for occasional subtle climatic variations and cloud movement—bespeaks the vastness of geologic (rather than historic or even archaeological) time, and belies the lovers' task: erosion will surely decimate them before they converge. 4'34" gaps of silence—an eternity for the contemporary art viewer, but negligible for the mountains—separate seven segments of Spanish-subtitled dialogue culled from American novelist Nicolas Sparks’ romances. Christopher K. Ho (b. Hong Kong) lives and works in New York City. Recent exhibitions include: The Incheon Biennale (2009) and The Busan Biennale (2008), both in Korea; Never Late Than Better, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York (2009); The Chinese Biennial, Beijing (2008); Landscape As Litmus, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Srpska (2008); Cultivate, MASSMoCA at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens (2008); and Happy Birthday, Winkleman Gallery, New York (2008). He received his M.Phil and M.A. from Columbia University, and his B.F.A. and B.S. from Cornell University.

| EDS | GALERIA se complace en presentar la primera exposición individual de Christopher K. Ho en esta galería. La exhibición Et in Arcadia Ego presenta siete obras en diversos medios sobre el genero del paisaje. El titulo, traducido idiomáticamente como “Aún en Arcadia, hay muerte”, expresa el interés continuo de Ho de explorar los parámetros y posibilidades del arte comprometido. En Arcadia, el idealismo reside en un pasado irrecuperable, no un futuro perfecto; en donde la atmósfera esta impregnada de patologías humanas, más que de promesas políticas tendenciosas. La exhibición –la cual lucha por mostrar simpatía y empatía y no ser critica o reflexiva- considera este marco como una guía para hacer arte en una época incierta. A lo largo del piso de la sala principal, un patrón de mosaicos removidos y reubicados deletrean la palabra “MIGRANT” (emigrante). En un lado de la sala hay un video de pantalla dividida que presenta dos montañas—El Popo y Monte Rainier—inicialmente aparentan ser imágenes fijas, pero de hecho fueron grabadas en tiempo real. Dialogos subtitulados de novelas de romance de Nicolas Sparks parpadean en la pantalla, separadas por lapsos de 4 minutos y 34 segundos—un segundo mas largo que la obra “Silent piece” de John Cage. En la sala opuesta, pinturas abstractas de pequeño formato, realizadas con humectante facial derivado de algas de las profundidades marinas, se convierten en sutiles impresiones de paisajes pastorales del siglo XVIII. Rombos en pares con acuarelas rociadas en capas sucesivas de colores rojo, azul y amarillo sobre papeles grabados con una retícula, ocupan espacios inesperados en todas las salas. Se refieren al punto en el que el paisaje se convierte en abstracción en el siglo XX, así como a la teoría reciente de la emergencia, en donde un simple juego de reglas repetidas (aquí, secuencias variantes y diluciones de pigmento) generan formas aparentemente orgánicas e inteligentes. A través de este reversión—de abstracción hacia el paisaje—y otros, Et in Arcadia Ego sugiere la fallida y de hecho infeliz certeza actual. Christopher K. Ho (nacido en Hong Kong) vive y trabaja en la ciudad de Nueva York.  Exhibiciones recientes incluyen: la Bienal Incheon (2009) y la Bienal Busan (2008), ambas en Corea; Never late than Better, de la Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts en Nueva York (2009); la Bienal China, en Beijing (2008); Landscape As Litmus, en el Museum of Contemporary Art Srpska (2008); Cultivate, MASSMoCA en los Berkshire Botaical Gardens (2008); y Happy Birthday, Winkleman Gallery, Nueva York (2008). Recibió su Maestria en Filosofia y Maestría en Artes en Columbia University, y su licenciatura en Artes y en Ciencias en Cornell University.

 

 

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