Ben Houge is on sabbatical. His year away from the day-job — writing the scores for computer games — has thus far been filled to a wild array of installations, experimental noise-scapes and making Shanghai’s best tacos (self-proclaimed). The contents of this biography come from his Twitter feed (@aleaboy). You can also find him at his website.
Ben was invited to participate in the inaugural Fat Art Festival in Beijing. He very kindly agreed to review it for this publication. Not only did he do it, but he did it 2 days after he performed at the festival, and more, the review is ace. Better than us Radar writers who are still struggling with Part 2 of last year’s October festivals review. Part 1 is here.
Without further ado, Ben Houge on Fat Art’s opening weekend:
“As one of the artists participating in Fat Art, I am ill-equipped to provide an unbiased account of the proceedings. But hopefully I compensate for what I lack in objectivity with juicy, behind-the-scenes dirt!
Fat Art is an initiative of the venerable Chinese rock record label Modern Sky, who have decided to expand their music empire to include art exhibitions. From what I gather, the name “Fat Art” is meant to evoke fun, trendy, insouciant, disposable youth culture. MS partnered with the Today Art Museum, who provided the venue for the show, and curator Karen Smith brought all the artists together and supported the development of their work. MS wants to make this an annual thing, and this year’s theme is “Music to My Eyes,” although given the musical predisposition of the show’s instigators, it’s hard to imagine future exhibits will stray too far from this theme. I believe the original idea was that each participating artist would somehow collaborate with or incorporate music by an artist on Modern Sky’s roster, but in the end, the works’ soundtracks came from a variety of sources (a discussion of the individual art installations to follow in a separate post).
The show’s up until May 3, and now that the crowds have cleared out a bit, there’s more room to experience the pieces and let them speak for themselves (to the extent that they can, above the din of all the other pieces). And it’s all free! So swing on by.
As you might expect, a show with Modern Sky’s connections was able to put on a heck of an opening party, which basically amounted to a mini music festival. The show opened last Friday, and for three days the gallery grounds were amok with a predominantly young crowd taking in artist talks (“Fat Talks”), film screenings (“Fat Films”), a “Fat Food” stand selling a sausage/bacon/pork open-faced sandwich (the nearby TAM café was also pushing “a gastro-celebration of hi-cal, alcohol-and-caffeine-intense eats and drinks”), and a “Fat Shop” swag stand selling the latest Modern Sky releases (I picked up the new Re-TROS, Hedgehog, and Casino Demon albums). The gallery next to ours was transformed into the unfortunately-named “TT Girls Club,” site of the official after party when the show closed at 7pm, where you could buy the standard array of well cocktails.
Each day in the late afternoon three bands took the stage (located immediately outside the gallery entrance, making it hard to appreciate the pieces inside). A quick rundown follows, but keep in mind that I was in and out of the gallery, talking to people people, making sure things were running smoothly, gawking at indie-rock celebrities, and mitigating a week’s worth of installation stress with drink, so the bands did not always have my full attention.
Day 1: After some opening remarks from Karen and others, thanking folks and introducing the artists, New Pants (新裤子) kicked things off in high style. They did their slick, new wave thing, and the crowd (the largest of the 3 days, I think) was really into it. I wish I could have listened more closely, but their show somewhat paradoxically coincided exactly with the public opening of the gallery. After them was Silent G, and I’m pretty much drawing a blank on their show. As I recall it was jangly, pleasant, girl-led pop-rock with some glockenspiel samples. Finishing up to an enthusiastic response was chiptune phenomenon Sulumi, who I think was joined by iLoop, while Japanese artist Shigetaka Nakajima did live painting inspired by the sounds coming from the stage. (The finished painting is now displayed on the main floor opposite Wu Ershan’s (乌尔善) Club Revolution.)
Day 2: Life Journey 旅行团opened, my first time hearing them, I think; sunny, easygoing pop-rock. Casino Demon 赌鬼was up next, not as tight as I recalled; their set included a loose cover of The Ramones’s “The KKK Took My Baby Away.” Last was Dead J, who led the crowd into the TT Girl Club to perform what seemed to be primarily a DJ set.
Day 3: I was back and forth from the stage area, as Chen Hangfeng and I had our artists’ talk this afternoon. This was my first time hearing Zig Zag; don’t know much about them, but they played nice, buzzy electro dance music, drum samples very prominent and tight, fitting for a dreary, cold Sunday afternoon. Girl Kill Girl were by far the least interesting band in the 3-day lineup, an all-girl group featuring the former guitarist from Hang On The Box, and basically recycling the same lopsided Chenglish schtick, but with no energy, dull songs, sloppy performances. (Their contribution to the CD accompanying the Fat Art magazine is a song entitled “Ourself Beside Me,” a jab at another, imminently more listenable HOTB spin-off band.) Brain Failure 脑浊isn’t usually my favorite band, harmonically kind of repetitive, but they were super tight and brought loads of excitement (especially in comparison to what immediately preceded them), ending with a rousing Cui Jian 崔健cover.
Brain Failure was actually filling in for P.K.14, who are still out of action while drummer Jonathan Leijonhufvud 雷坛坛 recovers from a broken foot. But Jonney was everywhere during set-up for the show, on-site well past midnight several nights, not only doing the poster and magazine layout, but also the text and layout for the introductory mural and the whitewashed furniture/video/light installation the fills the entryway. He’s an extremely personable fellow, and he provided invaluable support in helping me troubleshoot the real-time microphone setup for my installation. He also did the album art for the latest Re-TROS album, and you can buy high quality laser prints in the Today Art Museum store. P.K.14 lead singer Yang Haisong 杨海崧was also spotted checking out the show on Sunday night.”
What’s that you say? You’re still hungering for more? Check back tomorrow for Ben’s review of the Fat Art installations.