Curator Christopher Phillips speaks in the panel My Camera Doesn't Lie? 

Columbia University
116th St & Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Free and open to the public

The relationship between art and documentary is complex and evolving. Focusing on the rich history of art in East Asia, this informal panel and screening series will attempt to open a larger discussion, by inviting scholars across disciplines to examine a selection of works and to consider the series of questions.

These questions will address the relationship between truth and fiction in exposing ‘the real’, the position of ‘documentation’ in art, artists’ access to tools, the particular social and political conditions from which this work emerges, and the way this hybrid work may challenge official narratives and the history of art in the region. Consideration will also be given to issues of institutional collection and display.

The screening program will include selections by Toshio MATSUMOTO (b.1932, Japan), WANG Jianwei (b.1958, China), CHEN Chieh-jen (b.1960, Taiwan), Sung Hwan KIM (b.1975, Korea), and ZHOU Tao (b.1976, China). Acknowledging the concept of truth as a construct, these works are far from indexical representations of reality. Rather, they fluidly traverse multiple media and creative practices — video, photography, performance, conceptual art and documentary modes — to question the relationship between fact and fiction, art and society, and to investigate history, politics and the economy.

Panel Discussion