Wu Tang is a small mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei Province of People's Republic of China, just to the south of the city of Shiyan. From these mountains came The Wu Tang Clan, a group of rappers who are physically from Staten Island, New York, but spiritually find there home elsewhere. Wht is Wu Tang? is an unique handmade book and graphic e-book that allegorically grapples with the history of the Clan and their contribution to hip hop through the unlikely personality of Republican presidential candidate and former Texas governor Rick Perry. What is the connection? Wht is Wu Tang?
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This series of handmade books and e-books made by Paul Chan uses a special technique of overprinting images and texts onto existing sheets of book paper to create works that read like nothing else. The series premiered at the 2011 NY Art Book Fair. Each handmade book exists as an edition of one with one artist proofs, and as an e-book with a unique ISBN available on Apple iBooks.
Paul Chan is an artist who lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited widely in many international shows including: Making Worlds, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, 2009; Medium Religion, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2008; Traces du sacrê, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2008 and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include Paul Chan: The 7 Lights, Serpentine Gallery, London and New Museum, New 2007–2008. In 2007, Chan collaborated with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Creative Time to produce a site-specific outdoor presentation of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot in New Orleans. Chan’s essays and interviews have appeared in Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, October, Tate etc, Parkett, Texte Zur Kunst, Bomb, and other magazines and journals.
