Chinese artist, Cai Guo-Qiang has been making his signature gunpowder works for over twenty years. In 2008, he was commissioned to create Footprints in the Sky (2008), a dazzling firework arrangement that traversed the Beijing sky during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.  

In late October, artists, activists, community organizers, politicians, and architects converged in New York City for the  2013 Creative Time Summit. Between panels, conversations, lectures and presentations—bookended with dinners and cocktail receptions—the experience was chaotic, frenetic and, depending one’s ability to process massive amounts of information in a short amount of time, awe-inspiring. Aiming to be a catalyst for collaboration and reflexivity, the Summit facilitated the sharing of ideas and insights and inspired lively debate on issues of capitalism, place-making and belonging—all of which played out with mutual respect and admiration. 

There is nothing frivolous about Juliana Engberg—artistic director of the 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire (BoS)—you get what you see. She is likeable, vivacious, entertaining and quick to laugh but is susceptible, she confesses, to “a bit of intellectualism.”  Her background is of Danish ancestry and perhaps this heritage has dictated the biennale’s focus, which this year is strongly influenced by a Nordic and European sensibility. There are 36 artists from Scandinavia and countries such as Lithuania and Poland and several from Northern Europe, France, Germany and Holland, for example.

Satirical Internet cartoonist Pi San illustrates ironic critiques of the Chinese School system in his video animation Kuang Kuang. Fearlessly skirting the country’s Great Firewall, Pi delivers commentary on the absurdities of the modern Chinese society to millions of netizens. In “Blackboard” (2010), Pi asks: What happens to those students who fail to fulfil their national duty?

Photos by Yuanyuan Yang for Untitled Selection, a bi-weekly post of photography from ArtAsiaPacific’s areas of coverage. Created by photo editor, Ann Woo.

In an age of smartphone schedules, pop-up reminders and Facebook timelines, a hanging wall calendar might strike us as something preciously outmoded. There is nothing sentimental, however, about the 36 wall calendars recently presented by the Chinese artist Song Dong at Hong Kong’s ArtisTree arts venue.

Don’t let the size fool you. Ai Weiwei’s “little black book” will leave a lasting impression. Weiwei-isms is a volume of truisms by one of the most significant albeit, controversial artists practicing today.