Charles Munka via Matrix

I CURATE

Charles Munka

VIA THE INTEGRATED GLOBAL
CREATIVE ECONOMY

inspired by
THE GRAPEVINE TELEGRAPH
of Pre-Civil War African-Americans

promulgated by
The Brazilian Ministry of Culture

fomented by
The Bahian Secretary of Culture

fomented by
The Palmares Foundation
for the promotion of Afro-Brazilian Culture

fomented by
The National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples

Network Node

Name: Charles Munka
City/Place: Hong Kong
Country: China
Hometown: Lyon, France

CURATION

from this node by: Matrix+

Life & Work

Bio: Not every artist thinks of a painting as a place. For many artists—I would venture to guess the vast majority—a painting can be anything from a discrete object or a window into a fantasy to an object out of time or a representation of an ongoing practice.

Some painters, though, think of painting in architectonic terms, imagining how future viewers somewhere down the long temporality of art history might approach the work, wondering what kind of spaces paintings might one day be displayed within, considering how paintings themselves might evoke or even create spaces for meditation, conflict, romance, salvation. This is, in some important ways, the more classical approach to painting, in that it is beholden to a religious sensibility. Every painter of a medieval altarpiece, for instance, knew exactly where that painting would reside for the duration of its worldly existence; removal would be tantamount to cataclysm.

Through modernism, the artist wrests control of the siting of the work away from the commissioning institution—the image slinks from the church to the museum, freed from something spiritual and bonded instead to systems of circulation.

Museums are, all of them, tomb raiders. In the twentieth century, artists who have built homes for their prized works have been subject to ambiguous admiration and derision, the accusation of arrogance and egoism no doubt stemming from a lingering religious aura that has, despite it all, never been entirely stripped away from painting: in creating paintings for particular spaces the artist is seen as rejecting the invisible hand of circulation, and in creating spaces for particular paintings the he builds a temple to his own hand.

The Rothko Chapel, which technically functions as a place of worship; Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, often oddly described as an atheist temple; Monet’s Water Lilies, suspended in the air against a wall of their own; Mark Bradford’s Pickett’s Charge, and its immediate predecessor in the Gettysburg Cyclorama. These are all grand, masculine gestures that stake their claims into the frontier like so many flagpoles thrust into the surface of the moon, or the wastelands west of the Mississippi.

Charles Munka, forever a guest on the island of Sado, treads more softly. Working on the site of an old Noh stage, his paintings make place by being born of a place, as he suggests in the title: Riken no Ken, to see a detached seeing, to understand at a distance, to grasp formalized beauty and its referent—real, past, or imagined—all in the same instant.

On the exterior of the Haguro Shrine’s stage, he constructs five dark panels, five paintings of negative space that derive their graphic forms from the abstract choreographic manuals of the Noh tradition. The same pattern is repeated topographically, in Adrift, by stacked cairns of scavenged buoys, an object that washes up locally on the tides after being loosened, by nature or by accident or by villainy, from grids engaged in the aquaculture of oysters. They are nautical navigational aids, sculptural reinventions of the diagrams, street signs, and informational graffiti that Munka has lifted from the surfaces of walls, streets, and roadmaps time and time again, from rural France to the dense heart of Hong Kong. One imagines the criss-crossing wakes of the ships that have brought him here. His choreography appears again, a third time, inside of the shrine, but here reversed: crisp black lines on a light canvas, a confusion of routes that may once have traversed this very space, sucking all of the air and all of the history out of a room that nearly collapses under its own weight. Every mark, from beginning to end, is revealed to be intentional.

In making a place for these paintings, in making a place out of these paintings, Munka maps paths that do not move forward but rather pull us backward, spin us around, and deliver us right back to where we started. As viewers we stand at an altar without a specific purpose, other than to remind us that we can see what we are seeking only by stepping back from what is in front of us, to see our own detachment, and to allow the world to wash over us in waves.

by Robin Peckham

Contact Information

Contact by Webpage: http://www.charlesmunka.com/contact

Media | Markets

▶ Twitter: charlesmunka
▶ Instagram: charlesmunka
▶ Website: http://www.charlesmunka.com
▶ Article: http://theartling.com/en/artzine/on-the-rise-charles-munka/

Quotes, Notes & Etc. Charles Munka is art director for BTS Radio/Records and for Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label.

Clips (more may be added)

0:08:09
Iki, the island of gods - New Territories
By Charles Munka

248 views

Charles Munka Curated

What's Been Happening?

A category was added to Charles Munka:

Hong Kong
- August 25, 2020
A category was added to Charles Munka:

Collage
- August 25, 2020
A category was added to Charles Munka:

Drawings
- August 25, 2020
A category was added to Charles Munka:

Painter
- August 25, 2020
A video was posted re Charles Munka:

Iki, the island of gods - New Territories
In September 2018 artist Charles Munka pursued his insular journey on Iki, on Japan’s western border. Over a month of residency, he discovered the island’s identity, traditions and people, evolving in a new work environment. These encounters inspire...
- August 25, 2020
Charles Munka is matrixed!
- August 25, 2020

English (Portuguese →)

THE INTEGRATED GLOBAL CREATIVE ECONOMY

Humanity has never had this before.

"I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
✅—Susan Rogers
Personal recording engineer: Prince, Paisley Park
Director: Music Perception & Cognition Laboratory, Berklee College of Music
Author: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

The matrix was born in Salvador's Centro Histórico, where Bule Bule below sings, among magisterial colleagues for whom this matrix was originally built, "Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor... The time has come for these bronzed people to show their worth..."

Music & lyrics (Brasil Pandeiro) by Assis Valente of Santo Amaro, Bahia. Video by Betão Aguiar

The matrix provides a means by which those above, those below, and EVERYBODY ELSE in the creative economy can be divulged everywhere. Something new under the sun.

Quincy Jones can curate Gilberto Gil, for example. And Gil can curate, writers, dancers, filmmakers, painters, record producers, set designers...

And by the mathematics of the small world phenomenon, everybody in the matrix will tend to proximity to everybody else, in the same way that most human beings are within some six or so steps of most others.

The difference being that in the matrix, these steps are along pathways that can be travelled. The creative world becomes a neighborhood. Quincy Jones is right up the street and Branford Marsalis around the corner. And the most far-flung genius you've never heard of is just a few doors down. Maybe even in Brazil. Laroyê!

"Matrixado!"

✅—Founding Member Darius Mans
Economist, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
✅—Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of Brazil

"Many thanks for this - I am touched!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
That most fabled cellist in the United Kingdom (and Brazilian music fan)

"I'm truly thankful... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini
Blue Note recording artist)

"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals
Founder of The Klezmatics

"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad
Compositions recorded by Yo Yo Ma and played by orchestras around the world

"Thank you"
(Banch Abegaze, manager)
✅—Kamasi Washington

Tap people, tap categories, tap curations... The matrix is a maze of tunnels within King Solomon's mines.

(← Inglês) Português

A ECONOMIA CRIATIVA GLOBAL INTEGRADA

A humanidade nunca teve isso antes.

"Fico muitíssimo feliz em receber seu e-mail! Obrigada por me incluir neste matrix maravilhoso."
✅—Susan Rogers
Engenheiro de gravação pessoal para Prince: Paisley Park
Diretora: Laboratório de Percepção e Cognição Musical, Berklee College of Music
Autora: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

O matrix nasceu no Centro Histórico de Salvador, onde Bule Bule abaixo canta, entre colegas magisteriais para quem este matrix foi originalmente construído, "Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor..."

Música & letras (Brasil Pandeiro) por Assis Valente de Santo Amaro, Bahia. Vídeo por Betão Aguiar

O matrix fornece um meio pelo qual os acima, os abaixo e TODOS OS OUTROS na economia criativa podem ser divulgados em todos os lugares. Algo novo sob o sol.

Quincy Jones pode indicar Gilberto Gil, por exemplo. E Gil pode indicar escritores, dançarinos, cineastas, pintores, produtores de discos, cenógrafos...

E pela matemática do fenômeno de mundo pequeno, todos no matrix tenderão a se aproximar de todos, da mesma forma que a maioria dos seres humanos estão dentro de cerca de seis passos da maioria dos outros.

Com a diferença que no matrix, estes passos estão ao longo de caminhos que podem ser percorridos. O mundo criativo se torna uma vizinhança. Quincy Jones está lá em cima e Branford Marsalis está ao virar da esquina. E o gênio distante que você nunca ouviu falar tá lá embaixo. Talvez até no Brasil. Laroyê!

"Matrixado!"

✅—Membro Fundador Darius Mans
Economista, doutorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
✅—Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Presidente do Brasil

"Muito obrigado por isso - estou tocado!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
Estamos tocados também Sr. Webber!
Merecidamente o violoncelista mais lendário do Reino Unido (e fã da música brasileira)

"Estou realmente agradecido... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini
Artista da Blue Note)

"Obrigada, esta é uma ideia brilhante!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals
Fundadora do The Klezmatics

"Este é um trabalho super impressionante! Parabéns! Obrigada por me incluir :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad
Composições gravadas por Yo Yo Ma e tocadas por orquestras ao redor do mundo

"Thank you"
(Banch Abegaze, empresário)
✅—Kamasi Washington

Toque em pessoas, toque em categorias, toque em curadoria... O matrix é um labirinto de túneis dentro das minas do rei Salomão.