The second exhibition of Asian Art Project at MMCA, 'Infinite Challenge,' sheds light on the artworks by Asian female new media artists. In lack of understanding about new media and social support, the artists who have kept challenging for new art will be introduced. 

For more than four decades, Nalini Malani (1946~, India) has in her experimental art addressed social, political and societal issues surrounding the Indian subcontinent, including the conflict between India and Pakistan, the abuse and rape of women, and the struggle for democracy. Starting out as a painter, Nalini Malani was a pioneer in India who broke out of the classical painting frame in the late eighties to reach a wider audience, with installations, theatre, ephemeral wall drawings, erasure performances and video/shadow plays. 

Soungui Kim (1946~, Korea) is deeply influenced by Buddhist thought, the philosophies of Lao-tse and Tchuang-tse, and Wittgenstein’s investigation on language. Through her works, she explores the nature of time and the play of language, and questions of life and art. 

Shu Lea Cheang (1954~, Taiwan)  is a multi-media artist who works in the fields of net-based installation, social interface and film production. Cheang is one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary studies. Her work is unique in allowing viewer interaction. She is most noted for her individual approach in the realm of art and technology, creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods. 

Shahzia Sikander (1969~, Pakistan)'s pioneering practice takes Indo-Persian miniature painting as a point of departure. She challenges the strict formal tropes of miniature painting as well as its medium-based restrictions by experimenting with scale and media. Such media include animation, video, mural, and collaboration with other artists. 

Shilpa Gupta (1976~, India) is an interdisciplinary artist who uses from manipulated found objects to photography, video, interactive computer-based installation, and performance. Much of her works invite the audience to participate in them. She employs a variety of media blurring the boundary between art and ordinary life. 

Cao Fei (1978~, China) is known for her multimedia installations and videos, and is acknowledged as one of the key artists of a new generation emerging from Mainland China. She mixes social commentary, popular aesthetics, and references to Surrealism in her films and installations. Her works reflect on the rapid and chaotic changes that are occurring in Chinese society today. 

Tintin Wulia (1972~, Indonesia)'s works investigate the geopolitical borders that segregate our globalising world, informed by interdisciplinary research in art and critical geopolitics. Through interactive and participatory methodology she engages people in sociopolitical relationship models to foster critical dialogues.

These artists have pursed freedom as an artist beyond bias agains female and Asian, and not stopped experiments. The audiences will find that not only making new object, but creating new arts also makes new way of life and its meaning. 

*image (left)
Cao Fei
Haze and Fog, 2013
video, 46:30
courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space