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ICS Lecture: Clarissa von Spee, "Exhibiting Explosive Stuff - Contemporary Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and the Cuyahoga River Fire"

Clarissa von Spee
September 6, 2019
4:00PM - 5:30PM
Mendenhall Lab Room 115

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2019-09-06 16:00:00 2019-09-06 17:30:00 ICS Lecture: Clarissa von Spee, "Exhibiting Explosive Stuff - Contemporary Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and the Cuyahoga River Fire" Friday, September 6, 2019 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm Mendenhall Lab Room 115 (125 S Oval Mall) The Institute for Chinese Studies presents: Clarissa von Spee Chair of Asian Art and James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art The Cleveland Museum of Art Title: Exhibiting Explosive Stuff - Contemporary Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and the Cuyahoga River Fire Abstract: This lecture will introduce the exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang: Cuyahoga River Lightning on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from 25 May to 22 September, 2019. Dr von Spee will discuss the exhibition’s concept and approach that involved collaborating with the Chinese-born contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang and commemorating a difficult moment in the history of the city of Cleveland: when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, and the ensuing recovery of its waterways. The challenge for Cai was to transform the historic event and the following clean-up endeavors into the language of his art. Cai Guo-Qiang’s powerful explosion events and ignited gunpowder works offer visitors an inspiring visual experience and new ways of perceiving humankind and our relationship to nature. Clarissa von Spee is Chair of Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She was Curator of the Chinese and Central Asian collections at the British Museum from 2008 to 2016, and Assistant Professor for East Asian Art History at Heidelberg University, from 2008-2005. Dr. von Spee studied in Heidelberg, Paris, and Taipei and received her PhD from Heidelberg University in Germany. She curated numerous exhibitions, such as The Printed Image in China from the 8th to the 21st Centuries (British Museum and shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 2010); Modern Chinese Ink Painting. A Century of New Directions (British Museum); Cai Guo-Qiang: Cuyahoga River Lightning (Cleveland Museum of Art 2019). Her publications include, Wu Hufan: A Twentieth Century Art Connoisseur in Shanghai; Modern Chinese Painting & Europe. New Perceptions, Artists Encounters, and the Formation of Collections, co-edited with Michaela Pejčochová (Berlin 2017). Free and Open to the Public This event is co-sponsored by OSU's Department of History of Art and is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center. Mendenhall Lab Room 115 Department of History of Art historyofart@osu.edu America/New_York public

Friday, September 6, 2019 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm

Mendenhall Lab Room 115 (125 S Oval Mall)

The Institute for Chinese Studies presents:

Clarissa von Spee
Chair of Asian Art and James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Title: Exhibiting Explosive Stuff - Contemporary Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and the Cuyahoga River Fire

Abstract: This lecture will introduce the exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang: Cuyahoga River Lightning on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from 25 May to 22 September, 2019. Dr von Spee will discuss the exhibition’s concept and approach that involved collaborating with the Chinese-born contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang and commemorating a difficult moment in the history of the city of Cleveland: when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, and the ensuing recovery of its waterways. The challenge for Cai was to transform the historic event and the following clean-up endeavors into the language of his art. Cai Guo-Qiang’s powerful explosion events and ignited gunpowder works offer visitors an inspiring visual experience and new ways of perceiving humankind and our relationship to nature.

Clarissa von Spee is Chair of Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She was Curator of the Chinese and Central Asian collections at the British Museum from 2008 to 2016, and Assistant Professor for East Asian Art History at Heidelberg University, from 2008-2005. Dr. von Spee studied in Heidelberg, Paris, and Taipei and received her PhD from Heidelberg University in Germany. She curated numerous exhibitions, such as The Printed Image in China from the 8th to the 21st Centuries (British Museum and shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 2010); Modern Chinese Ink Painting. A Century of New Directions (British Museum); Cai Guo-Qiang: Cuyahoga River Lightning (Cleveland Museum of Art 2019). Her publications include, Wu Hufan: A Twentieth Century Art Connoisseur in Shanghai; Modern Chinese Painting & Europe. New Perceptions, Artists Encounters, and the Formation of Collections, co-edited with Michaela Pejčochová (Berlin 2017).

Free and Open to the Public

This event is co-sponsored by OSU's Department of History of Art and is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.

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