Sunday, April 14 –Sunday, April 28

Hard to Read

The exhibitions—Present Tense, Hard to Read, and Liminal Spaces—are organized by master's degree candidates in the Center's graduate program in Curatorial Studies.

Hard to Read, curated by Liu Feng, exhibits works by Xu Bing, Seong Chun, Udomsak Krisanamis, and Qiu Zhijie. Originally from East Asia, all four artists have moved to New York City and had to adapt to English, leaving behind their native languages and cultural attachments. They have experienced a profound relocation--involving home, world, life, and the sense of self--and have gained a fluency in a foreign language combined with a sense of strangeness. Each of the works in the exhibition plays with written words and, through various methods, transforms them into marks, encouraging new readings and renditions. The resulting enigmas of language stem from the perplexity of living?illustrated by the artists? bicultural or multicultural life experiences and heightened by their nomadic lifestyles. The works invite viewers to experience a mysterious visual nexus, one that vivaciously narrates the complexity and richness of contemporary life in global cities.

Artist Seong Chun, Cities (detail), 1997,
text on crocheted paper, thread,
courtesy of Caren Golden Fine Art

An opening reception will be held on Sunday, April 14, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Free bus transportation from New York City to the Center is available for the opening. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Admission to the museum and to the reception is free.

On April 14, the day of the exhibition openings, free bus transportation will be available from New York City to the Center for Curatorial Studies. A chartered bus will leave from SoHo at 11:00 a.m. and depart from the Center at 4:00 p.m. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the Center at 845-758-7598 no later than Friday, April 12. Transportation is provided through the generosity of Howard and Donna Stone.

Exhibitions are free and open to the public. Programs at the Center, including the spring exhibitions, are supported by the Friends of the Center for Curatorial Studies and by the Center's annual benefit for student scholarships and exhibitions. Additional support for the spring exhibitions has been provided by the Monique Beudert Fund and Marieluise Hessel. For further information, call the CCS at 845-758-7598 or e-mail ccs@bard.edu.