Exploring the cultural myths surrounding Chinoiserie, this novel history delves into the allure and misconceptions of porcelain in Europe. It combines curiosity with critical analysis to reveal how this fascination shaped perceptions of the East, challenging established narratives and highlighting the complexities of cultural exchange. Through its examination of porcelain, the book uncovers deeper themes of fantasy, identity, and the interplay between art and culture.
Water Does Not Soak in Rain surveys 25 years of works from the internationally-acclaimed South Korean photographer Atta Kim. Since the mid-1980s, Kim (born 1956) has evolved and practiced a singular life-philosophy through a personal synthesis of the teachings of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, Armenian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff and Zen Buddhism. The works that Kim produced after ten years of formal training in these teachings--which include his series In der-Welt-sein (1991), Deconstruction (1995) and The Museum Project (1995-2002), in which he created a private museum by placing figures in Plexiglas boxes--are described by him as "byproducts" or expressions of this Weltanschauung . The guiding motto or aphorism of the On-Air project is simply "all things eventually disappear." Kim's most recent series compresses 10,000 images of a city into one image, and represents the project's culmination.