Live From Earth:Carl G Torstenson’s exhibition

TCG Nordica-UP Gallery
Opening: 2008.11.24, Monday, 20:00
Duration: 2008.11.24-12.24
tel: 0871-4114962
Add: TCG Nordica, Chuangku, Xibalu 101#, Kunming
www.tcgnordica.com

Carl G Torstenson born in Uppsala Sweden 1948
As an artist he is working with sculpture, painting, and installations, mostly conseptional art or art projects on a theme. In theater and museums he is working with stage design, costumes and more. He started at the theater forty years ago and had his first solo art exhibition in -73.
Since then there have been around fifty solo exhibitions, mostly in Sweden, but also in the USA, Germany, Finland , Japan and Norway.
Since -90 he has worked with his art only and “making rooms” is now in the center.
At first it was mostly impressionistic painting but from the beginning of the eighties the inner rooms slowly took over and the work with the theater and the art of his own was more and more influenced by each other.
He is now working in all materials, often in long time projects, often with existential problems like in the rice project Grow Now ltd that contains questions like who has the right to take patent on living materials, as seeds for example.
Rice is a material that he has bin using since -98 in many installations in various themes. One was about the Iraq war called “This is not a wedding”
Other themes have been“ Predestination” , what are we borne to be or how to live and similar questions.
All the exhibitions usually contain both paintings and objects.
Participation in many international projects like Eventa II, III, and V on themes like: “Wind” Water” and “Mankind”.
During the year -07 there were many art projects in churches, and the latest was in Nykoping called “To measure what can not be measured”.
Carl G Torstenson has also made many public assignments and then often used sculpture and worked in different materials as a medium.
For the artwork and coming exhibitions in Kunming and Sweden Carl G Torstenson has together with the artist Annika Haglund collected local materials like soil and indigo and other nature materials during a two and a half months journey, all the way by train and bus from Sweden through Mongolia to Beijing, Inner Mongolia and then small mountain villages down to Kunming.

Exhibition in TCG Nordica KUNMING
by Carl G Torstenson

“LIVE FROM EARTH”
The impressions for this exhibition that I have called “LIVE FROM EARTH” comes from the present yourney through Asia together with the artist Annika Haglund
The trip began more than three months ago in Sweden and then we have been traveling with train all the way through Russia , Mongolia , Inner Mongolia, to Beijing and all the way down to Kunming where we are right now and have been working in a studio at TCG Nordica, a fantastic and inspiring place to work at and with so very nice people !
For this artwork, my exhibition in Kunming and also for coming projects in Sweden we have during this long trip collected local materials such as earth in different colors like the deep red Yunnan earth , Indigo blue and other nature materials for to use in the artwork in different ways.
Along the way we have been staying long periods in small villages high up in the mountains and there lived by the minority people. We have seen them working with the earth. Planting and digging, weaving, dying the fabrics and many other things coming from nature. Working hard along the steep mountainsides and there making it possible to grow on the small terraces. Also seen they carry everything they need up and down these mountains.
This project is a tribute for to grow the earth as well as for them who work with the earth and live in symbiosis with nature.
Then there is this question, is it the last generation we now see that is putting there hands in the earth or in the pot of Indigo?
.On the feather way through the Asian countries, that after Kunming goes to Vietnam and Cambodia the plan is to work and do small installations along the way where it is possible. The plan is also then to use local materials.

Madeleine Aleman: Colourful China

Colourful China - Madeleine Aleman’s recently works in Kunming

TCG Nordica-UP Gallery, Kunming, China
Opening: 2008/11/1, 20:00
Exhibition duration: 2008/11/1–11/22
Tel: 0086-871-4114962
Add:TCG Nordica, Xibalu 101#, Kunming, Yunnan.
www.tcgnordica.com

My experience as an A.I.R at TC/G Nordica in Kunming, China August - November 2008

It is a great adventure for me to be here in Kunming, which also is my first time in Asia. My intention of coming here was to put myself in a completely new context in purpose to change and grow. It took me about one month to “land” and get an everyday-life. Not knowing any Chinese even going to the shop to buy food is a trial: What is hidden in this beautiful package, beans, nuts or something else? I really appreciate not understanding though, it forces me to be present and communicate in other ways than with words.

I am happy that I am participating in Nordica’s program for residency in many ways: To immediately have good housing and a studio near other artists, to have a lot of nice people that helps me to get things I need, to be introduced to artists, visit their studios and be invited to exhibitions and all that with interpreter! Also to follow what’s going on at Nordica’s cultural centre and now, last but not least, have the opportunity to make an exhibition to share the outcome of the residency!

Actually I had about 2 months of intense work in the studio, since the first was “landing” and the last will be some travelling. The work from this period is diverse. Since I want to share my process I am not taking away pieces to make it look more coherent. I started with the “Kaleidoscope-paintings”, something I felt was easy, wanted to integrate China with Sweden, then the first idea leads to next and so on… I wanted to use all my new impressions, my minority clothes, paper cuts and Chinese characters.
I get inspired every day when I walk from my home to the studio on Xiba lu, now even called “My street”. This lovely throng of people playing, cooking, washing, working…nice smiles from old and young, children waving their hands and says: “Hello!”. Smells from food, the bakery, colours of fantastic plastic, vegetables and clothes…I love Kunming!

Do you want to see more? Please visit my webpage: www.aleman.se

Thanks to all nice staff at Nordica, the lovely Kunming citizens and to you that visit my exhibition!
Special thanks to:
Luo Fei, for all interesting conversations about art, your lecture on Chinese contemporary art and that you took me to visit artists.
Tian Yao, for your help with so many different things, for interpreting, for bringing me on exhibition openings and other joyful events.

With love, Madeleine Aleman

>>>Madeleine Aleman’s CV

exhibition space

Transparencies: Records of a Journey Traveled

“Transparencies: Records of a Journey Traveled”

Exhibition Opening: 20:00,6/Sep/2008
TCG Nordica-UP-Gallery space
Tel: 0871-4114692/4114691
www.tcgnordica.com

KMOV is…
KMOVstudios is a creative multi-media engine that has, since 2002, been involved in service-oriented media projects. Our focus is to use our gifts in various projects for the benefit of friends and family worldwide. Such works include music videos and filmmaking in Chicago’s inner-city neighborhoods, public murals in New Mexico and Guizhou, art collaborations and education with secondary and elementary school students via music, film, and painting; also shorts and documentaries, web design, illustration, and music recording.

Perspective…
KMOVstudios views art and media first as a gift, and second as an offering: we reap of our experience, and present the best of these multimedia “crops” with joy and thanksgiving. Our work represents a journey, both personal and generational. We are vessels, full of good things received from our fathers and mothers; art is a link, a powerful instrument for communication with the next generation. We seek to be a part of the dialogue that connects the Source to the future…and one who drinks water ought to remember the source.

Nordica, September 2008…
“Transparencies: records of a journey traveled” includes the works of KMOVstudios’ friends from Beijing, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Transparency is a quality of something that allows light to pass through it, so that objects behind can be distinctly seen. This idea is the hinge upon which the responses to our individual journeys in this exhibit swing. These photographs and paintings are the responses of people on the road, passing through vestiges of culture and society, and witness to the timeless things experienced through an ephemeral present.

KMOV, August 2008

Opening:

more pictures from Transparencies opening:http://kmovstudios.org/?p=41

The Secrets Of The Mirror

The swedish photographers Hilma & Maria’s exhibition: The Secrets Of The Mirror
Opening: Sat May 3rd 20:00
Duration: 2008-0503–end of May
Add:TCG Nordica UP-Gallery,Xiba lu 101,Kunming,Yunnan,China
Tel:0871-4114692 or 4114691
www.tcgnordica.com

“The photos are a mix from Scandinavia and southeast Asia. The pictures have different thems, mainly of nature.”

About the Artists
Maria and Hilma have moved from Sweden to live in Kunming in China for a year to take part in a culture course. During this year they have been inspired by Asian surroundings and have developed their photographic skills. “The Secrets Of The Mirror” is their very first exhibition and it is fortunate they have started to share their beautiful pictures with a bigger audience.
Lina Baeckstrom

Maria Stenlund
Maria Stenlund is 24 years old and an authorized nurse, she comes from the city of Leksand in Dalarna in Sweden. Maria’s interest in photography began when her twin sister Anna took a photo course when they were sixteen. Since then Maria has taken various courses in photography and have deepened her knowledge in different techniques. During this year she has been part of a documentary group and is the most frequent and appreciated photographer at events at Nordica. Maria’s photographs have two different themes: detail and documentary, both are presented in “the Secrets of the Mirror”. In her photographs Maria wishes to capture the very soul of the object, and manages to do so in close detailed pictures but also in pictures that holds larger scenery. She wants you to get the feeling of watching the object for the first time even though you’ve seen it a thousand times before. Maria wants to give you a glimpse of heaven, through the wonders of the earth.

Hilma Andersson
Hilma Andersson comes from the city of Kramfors in the north part of Sweden. Hilma is 26 years old and holds a bachelor degree in social work. As a social worker Hilma has lived and worked in Uganda, Africa, during three different periods in 2006 and 2007. Her interest in photography began to bloom when she borrowed her father’s old camera in 2003. During a visit to a minority park in Yunnan last fall, her “photographic eye” opened and she discovered a new style of creating an image. This changed Hilma’s view towards a more experimental and artistic way of taking pictures. From this moment Hilma started taking the type of photos presented in “The Secret’s Of The Mirror”. Hilma’s pictures have one theme but ranges from being very peaceful with a more clear image to being playful with a more abstract feeling. Hilma is fascinated by reflections in the water and how it can speak to ones imagination, creating new, vivid images.

Lina Baeckstrom
Kunming, China,2008-04-30

photos from Hilma Andersson

photos from Maria Stenlund

exhibition space:

Per Johansson:Dance of the Light

Curator: Luo Fei
Opening: 2008/03/07 Friday 20:00
Duration: 2008/03/07–2008/03/26
Add/Space: TCG Nordica-UP Gallery(the second floor space).Loft,Xibalu 101#,Kunming,Yunnan.
Tel: 0871-4114692
www.tcgnordica.com

Per Johansson’s website
Related essay “Let there be light.”

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