Third Realm
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The Polygon Gallery 101 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7M 3J4
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, "Ghost Teen," 2009
Broken Time, 2020 Sunday, November 8
Join Vancouver artist, Lam Wong, in a tea meditation performance to mark the final day of Third Realm. In this performance he will serve tea in Kintsugi Chawan (repaired bowls) by Naoko Fukumaru. The slow, contemplative experience of Broken Time suggests ways to live fearlessly and calmly in this time of crisis. This event is taking place online as well as in the gallery.
The Polygon Gallery is pleased to present Third Realm, a group show of contemporary art from across East and Southeast Asia, marking the first major exhibition at the Gallery since its closure in March due to Covid-19. Third Realm includes contemporary works of photography, video, drawing, and installation by seminal figures of the contemporary art scene.
“We are thrilled to welcome the community back to a fully reopened gallery, and proud to mark the occasion with a timely exhibition featuring some of the most important artists working in Asia today,” says Reid Shier, The Polygon Gallery’s Director.
Third Realm showcases a crucial period of artistic production from 2004 to 2019, and presents a comprehensive view of the contemporary Asian art landscape. Highlights include work by Thai artist and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, winner of the 2010 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives; Cao Fei, the first Chinese artist to have a solo show at Paris’s Centre Pompidou; and FX Harsono, widely regarded as Indonesia’s most prominent contemporary artist.
Other participating artists include: Birdhead, Comfortable Collective, Gary Ross Pastrana, Heman Chong, Jompet Kuswidananto, Lu Yang, Paola Pivi, Sun Xun, Surasi Kusolwong, Sutee Kunavichayanon, Xijing Men, Yang Zhenzhong, and Zhou Xiaohu.
Third Realm provides critical insights into the sociopolitical shifts at the turn of the century when the Far East’s economic prosperity began to command global attention. Often calling into question the limits and bias of the camera, the artists exploit the directness of documentary images to reveal the complexities of social change.
“Each work presented opens powerful doors into artistic and cultural worlds. The exhibition could not be more perfect for the time we are living in where humans, as social beings, are disrupted and find themselves in isolation. Third Realm is a show that wants to stimulate dialogue, research, communality and openness,” says Davide Quadrio, the exhibition’s curator and co-founder of the FarEastFarWest collection.