我的负能量是你的正能量, or, 或者, The Grin Without The Cat
collaboration with HomeShop for Unlived by What is Seen, curated by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu and Cui Cancan, Pace Beijing, 2014

01 spreadcrop1000

installation view

02-interior1000

installation view

03-vitrinedetail1000

Detailed view of HomeShop archive with the following objects: #11 Not Including Someone as HomeShop Member (non-realized initiative, e-mail, 2012); #28 Handwritten Notes Exchanged with Xiao Li (paper, 2009 – 2013); #43 WaoBao! Quilt (hand-stitched fabrics [mixed], 2013); and one of seven screens playing recorded dialogues between HomeShop organizers.

04-vitrinedetail1000-2

Detailed view of HomeShop archive with the following objects: #89 Various Logos (rubber stamps, sticker paper, 2009 – 2013) ; #49 White Tile (ceramic, 2010 – 2013) ; #53: “It is hard to please all” (salt, cooking oil, 2011) ; #10: Elevator Pitch (non-realized initiative, 2012); #84 Padlock Key (aluminum, 2010); and #69 Front Space Notebook (handmade A5-sized notebook, 60 pages, 2012).

05-guidebook_runawaycats1000-2

exhibition guidebook entry number 3, the runaway cats of HomeShop

08-visitor1000-2

installation view

07-interior-w-guest1000-2

installation view

06-spiritual-bio1000

Description of HomeShop provided by the curators; This wall text appeared next to our installation two days before the opening, surprising us all with its framing of HomeShop as a “spiritual” project pursuing “absolute equal-democracy”. Most of us felt this was patently absurd or simply reflected a gross misunderstanding as to how HomeShop fit within the curatorial direction of the exhibition—while certain others among us were quite pleased by its lofty exaggerations.

Almost one year after artist-run space HomeShop closed its doors, its participation in the group exhibition Unlived by What is Seen was an attempt to retrospectively address five-and-a-half years of work and play. The multiplicity and dynamics that defined this collaborative project since its inception in 2008——including its spaces, people and activities, self-organized and processual——do not necessarily add up to a singular viewpoint, nor can they be easily mapped. Retrospection is paradoxical. Subjective. Dialogical.

「我的负能量是你的正能量,or,或者,The Grin Without The Cat thus appeared as a sampling of ephemera and residuals—from daily life, from the structures of organization, from other possibilities and deadends, from things that never were, and, from a few ghosts. Specially prepared video dialogues and printed guides served as escorts and annotations to the more than 100 items included in this archive; the history they recount led on any number of narrative journeys. Retrospection is production. A spirit attending a series of old objects. A kind of collaboration postmortem. There’s no more time to play!

This exhibition project was conceived and carried out by Orianna Cacchione, Michael Eddy, Elaine W. Ho, Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga and Twist Qu.

See more: www.homeshopbeijing.org/blog/?p=5659, www.homeshopbeijing.org/blog/?p=5673, and www.pacegallery.com