Chambers Fine Art Beijing announces the opening on Saturday 31 October of a new project by veteran Beijing artist-provocateurs Hong Hao and Yan Lei.
Chambers Fine Art has had a long and fruitful association with Hong Hao, his most recent exhibition in 2007 at Chambers New York Elegant Gatheringconsisting of a series of works that has clearly emerged as one of the most incisive comments on the mores of cultural production and consumption in recent Chinese contemporary art.
The Chambers project SPARK! is Yan Lei and Hong Hao’s third collaboration to date, the most notorious being the 1997 fake invitations addressed to Chinese artists purportedly to invite them to participate in a ‘special section’ of the prestigious Documenta X exhibition in Kassel.
The starting point for the Chambers exhibition is the launch of a new Beijing-based arts, music and design magazine SPARK!. The magazine publishers engaged Hong Hao as Art Editor due to his reputation for works based on printing processes, the creation of artist’s books as well as his compelling manipulation of the dynamics of information and misinformation. Hong Hao is assisted in this task by activist painter Yan Lei who himself often works with images drawn from popular culture. Under their joint control SPARK! Issue I has immediately launched an open process of dialogue with an invitation to a diverse range of people to propose their own definitions – in images or in text – of what constitutes art.
SPARK! Issue II, currently going to press, is extending this theme of public participation in the on-going debate of what constitutes art.
SPARK! Issue II will act as catalogue to the Chambers exhibition.
The central element Hong Hao and Yan Lei’s exhibition at Chambers is the showing of a collection of significant objects. In the same way that the magazine has been produced the objects to be exhibited at will beprovided to the artists by an invited public. During the first day of the exhibition Yan Lei and Hong Hao will receive these objects at the Chambers space. They will record, label and curate the objects in an act of semi-performance that merges into the actual opening of the show. Yan Lei’s painting and print work, including the signature psychedelic wheel portraits feature prominently in the space.
To mark this exhibition project the artists have produced a limited-edition boxed artwork which includes a series of prints by Yan Lei, a signed limited edition of photographic images by Hong Hao and signed copies of Issue II of SPARK!.
北京前波画廊将于10月31日（周六）举行洪浩与颜磊的新项目开幕酒会，这两位北京艺术家有一个共同的特点，都善于运用具有挑衅性和煽动性的语言方式去进行艺术内涵的探究。
一直以来，前波画廊与洪浩都保持着卓有成效的合作关系，最近的一次合作是2007年他在纽约前波画廊空间举办的名为“雅集”的展览，艺术家以一种十分明显的姿态表达了对当下文化产品中的道德观念和中国当代艺术商品消费观念的最尖锐评议。
在北京前波画廊实施的新项目“气泡SPARK!”之前，颜磊与洪浩已经合作完成过两个艺术项目，其中最为“声明昭著”的要数1997年的邀请函造假事件，两位艺术家联手伪造了一封邀请函，并寄给一些中国艺术家，声称其受邀参加极富盛名的艺术首席大展“第十届卡塞尔文献展”中的一个特展。
此次在前波画廊的展览也标志着《气泡SPARK!》杂志的诞生，这是一本以北京的艺术、音乐和设计为主题而创立的杂志。洪浩以版画制作得名。出版商所看重他在手工艺术书籍中所显示出的创作才能，以及对信息和误传的多变性的出色、有力的操控能力，特别指定洪浩为《气泡SPARK!》的艺术编辑。
惯以用流行文化为创作素材的活跃画家颜磊将与洪浩共同完成《气泡SPARKS!》这个项目。在他们联合主编的《气泡SPARKS!》杂志第一期中，发起了一个公众参与性的活动，邀请不同身份背景的人群利用图片或是文字对“究竟是什么构成了艺术”这一话题给出自己的定义和看法。在即将出版的《气泡SPARK!》第二期中，将继续深入该话题，并以此作为本次前波画廊展览的画册。
此次他们合作项目的中心思想，便是那些因邀请公众参与而征集得来的一批数量众多且意味深长的“答案”。在展览的第一天里，颜磊和洪浩将在北京前波画廊收集这些“答案”，并对其进行记录、分类，最后组合安排到一个半行为式的作品当中，与展览开幕式相互穿插。同时，颜磊的绘画和版画作品，包括一件附有艺术家签名的迷幻旋转的肖像，在整个空间中显得异常醒目。
为了纪念该项目，艺术家设计制作了一个限量版的箱装作品，其中包括颜磊的系列版画作品，洪浩的限量签名摄影图片，以及印有艺术家签名的第二期的《气泡SPARK!》杂志。