Theater of Mimicry
Venue： Hanart TZ Gallery
2/F, Mai On Industrial Building,
17-21 Kung Yip Street, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong
Exhibition period： 10 to 31 August 2024
Curators： Dan YANG and Celine Xi CHEN
Artists： Julian Junyuan FENG / Chi HE / Yujiang MA
Orsolya ÁDER / Linghao SHEN / Chutian SHU
Yiquan WANG / Tant Yunshu ZHONG / ZZYW (Yang WANG & Zhenzhen QI)
Organizer： Hanart TZ Gallery
China Academy of Art
Central Art Museum
Co-Organizer： School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art
Media City R&D Center, China Academy of Art
China Academy of Art Education Foundation
Director： CHANG Tsong Zung Johnson and Yan WANG
This summer Hanart TZ Gallery is proud to play host to two special exhibitions by emerging curators whose outstanding curatorial project proposals were selected by the new “ECP: Stars Emerging Curator Project.” Co-organized by Hangzhou Central Art Museum, China Academy of Art, and China Resources Mixc Lifestyle, the ECP-Star Curatorial Program aims to discover and support young curators and artists who demonstrate a highly innovative spirit and unique vision. In July Hanart presented the first project of the series. The second winning project is The Theater of Mimicry, co-curated by Dan YANG and Celine Xi CHEN, set to open at Hanart TZ Gallery on 10 August.
The Theater of Mimicry brings together nine artists/artist groups who, working within the three main thematic contexts of “environmental mimicry”, “cultural mimicry” and “digital mimicry,” together construct a complex, interwoven mimetic world, inviting the audience in to engage with a multi-layered sensory and ideological experiential field. Through this field, the exhibition aims to reveal the complex interweaving and dynamic equilibrium between the real and the virtual, the natural and the artificial, and the private and the public that exist within contemporary society; and in so doing to inspire each viewer to re-examine their individual experience in the world so as to discover deeper truths hidden behind mimicry and appearances.
The opening reception of The Theater of Mimicry will take place at Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, on Saturday, August 10th from 2 to 6 pm, in the presence of the curators, participating artists, and special guest Wang Yan, Director of the Central Art Museum of China and professor at the China Academy of Art, who will engage in conversation and interaction with the audience.
The exhibition runs through 31st August.
The Barcelona Pavilion, above ground and below ground (Photo: Andrés Jaque, 2012)
For the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain, the architect Mies van der Rohe designed Germany’s “Barcelona Pavilion”, a structure long considered as an icon of Modernist architecture. After the Exposition closed in January 1930, the Pavilion—always meant as a temporary structure—was demolished. In 1986 a facsimile of the Barcelona Pavilion was meticulously constructed on the original site, in accordance with van der Rohe’s renderings. The one exception was the addition of a basement, which did not exist in the original design. In order to ensure the “historical authenticity” of the replica, the presence of the new basement was carefully concealed by the architects. As a result, the simplicity and openness of the reconstructed Barcelona Pavilion above ground continues to embody the ideals of aesthetic and formal purity espoused by the Modernist movement, while the concealed underground space manifests the actual functional requirements of the building. This dichotomy is a metaphor for the relationship between appearance and substance that is at the heart of mimicry; that is, appearance is used to cover up or to reveal some deeper level of substance.
From a biological standpoint, mimicry refers to the evolution of similar characteristics within differing biological species. The main purpose of mimicry in nature is to take on certain characteristics of another species in order to confound predators or to approach prey. The mimetic creature thus gives up an aspect of its innate bodily appearance in order to survive by “disguising” itself as a different body. However, the camouflage pattern or protective color it adopts also constitutes a form of reality: the creature’s mimicry now becomes part of its own reality. We often see a work of art mimicking a particular concrete object, while manifesting the appearance of that object through its own materials and media—thus seeming to declare to the viewer that “I am not materially this thing.” But in the space that exists between the real and the unreal, the viewer cannot help but to compare the mimicry of the object with the real thing, engaging in a kind of mental spinning game, rather like the shifting back-and-forth perspective of the formalized “shot reverse shots” techniques used in films.
Although mimetic theory has continued to evolve in modern times, at its core is always the imitation and re-creation of the surrounding environment as a means of adaptation, integration and survival: a kind of dialectical process of interaction and dialogue with time and space. The Theater of Mimicry invites the audience to enter into and engage with a multi-layered sensory and ideological experiential field. Within this field, each of the artworks will establish multiple forms and levels of “gaze” with their viewers, forming a complex interactive dialogue. The exhibition structure combines three main thematic contexts of “environmental mimicry”, “cultural mimicry” and “digital mimicry,” together constructing a complex, interwoven mimetic world that organically integrates environmental, cultural and digital elements. Each thematic segment not only showcases the artists’ unique interpretation of the surrounding environment and the materials of daily life associated with it, but also deeply embeds within it a level of humanist warmth and emotion that illuminates the depth of the mutual engagement between humans and their environment, and the hidden impact this has on social and cultural structures.
Since its earliest beginnings, a “theater” has always constituted a public space: the original meaning of the Greek word “Theatron” is “a place for watching”. The present exhibition simulates a theater in current time and space. Each of the artworks is individually incorporated into this theatrical environment, becoming part of it and generating different relationships of gaze with the viewer. Within the porosity and multiple entanglements of the design, there is a mutually generated sense of flow and transformation, just like in a theater where time and space are in a constant state of flux, and the actors enter and leave the stage in an ever-shifting momentum. Through encounters with these works, viewers experience the complex interweaving and dynamic interbalance between the real and the virtual, the natural and the artificial, the public and the private, as they exist in contemporary society. Ultimately, The Theater of Mimicry seeks to inspire each viewer to re-examine their individual experience in the world so as to discover the deeper truths hidden behind mimicry and appearances.
CURATOR
Dan YANG
Yang Dan is a curator currently based in Shanghai. Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Yang received his BA from The College of Arts and Media of Tongji University, and a Master’s degree in Architecture from both Tongji University and Politecnico di Milano.
Since 2013 Yang has been deeply engaged with the West Bund Biennial of Architecture and Contemporary Art, The Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture, The Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Center Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project, and the collaboration between the Shanghai West Bund and Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District. Yang has served as the head of the exhibition production department of West Bund Group, and chief curator of exhibitions including Journey by János Fayo and Budapest Workshop (Shenzhen, Artron Art Center, 2024), Shanghai Urban Space Art Season Hongkou District Practical Case Exhibition (Shanghai, 2023), Shanghai Urban Space Art Season Xuhui District Practical Case Exhibition (Shanghai, 2019, 2017).
Celine Xi CHEN
Celine Xi CHEN is an architect, curator, and interdisciplinary designer. Chen received both a BA and MA in Architecture from Tsinghua University, and practiced at Atelier Jean Nouvel during her stay in France. Chen is committed to becoming a creative worker who structures space narratives with directorial thinking, specializing in integrating multi-disciplinary design to shape creative experience. Chen’s major planning/design exhibitions include the 2023 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, 2023 Guangzhou Design Week, and Shanghai Henderson Xuhui World Space Art Season, among others. Chen is currently based in Shanghai.
Julian Junyuan FENG
Julian Junyuan FENG (b.1991) is an artist and writer based in Shanghai, China. He received his BS in physics from Fudan University and MFA in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania. His recent solo projects include Action de Jouissance, Suhe Haus, 2023; The Refuge Architect, A26 Space, 2023; “Penny Dreadful,” totalab, Shanghai, 2022. He also exhibited at Long March Independent Space (2023), Surplus Space (2023), Inside-Out Art Museum (2020) and Guangdong Times Museum (2018). Feng co-curated the exhibition Whatever works, whatever it takes with Zhihui Zhang at Goethe-Institut China in 2019. In 2021, he co-curated the exhibition Liquid Ground with Alvin Li at Para Site in Hong Kong and a second, traveling iteration at UCCA Dune in 2022. His writing has appeared in e-flux architecture, frieze, Artforum, Flash Art, Heichi magazine and LEAP Magazine.
Feng Junyuan, On Transparency
2022, Dual-channel computer-generated image, 4′ 43”
On Transparency is a dual-screen computer-generated animation, originating from the Barcelona Pavilion (German Pavilion) at the 1929 Barcelona Expo designed by Mies van der Rohe, a paradigm of modernist architecture. The building was originally a temporary one; what exists today on the original site was rebuilt by several Spanish architects in 1986 based on archival photos and floor plans. There is also an added basement that did not originally exist, serving as space to arrange pipelines, storage, and rest space for maintenance personnel. Architect Andres Jaque once moved all the objects hidden in the basement to the main pavilion on the ground floor for display. The modernist ideals that immortalized Mies van der Rohe, namely the emphasis on transparency, openness, and the honesty of the material, give rise to a paradox: for the replica building to conform to the “historical authenticity” of the modernist ideal, the existence of the basement becomes indispensable, as such an ideal form requires tireless and meticulous “maintenance.” This computer animation reconstructs the appearance of the basement based on only a few photos. In addition to a large number of equipment and pipelines, there are also details such as damaged marble and travertine veneers, and stacked EU, Spanish, and German flags.
Left: Feng Junyuan, Lil Gorby, 2023, CGI, Archival inkjet print, 48 x 60 cm
Right: Feng Junyuan, Nike Boy, 2023, CGI, Archival inkjet print, 40 x 40 cm
In Lil Gorby and Nike Boy, Feng Junyuan modeled and restored the birthmark on the forehead and the bruises under the eyes. The skin and hair were clearly visible, and the imagery approximated those of maps and brand logos, allowing viewers to think about the politics of the host-guest relationship between territories and the myth of the consumer generation. These memes appear to mock the absurdity of humanism, and these uncanny, realistic images seem to be made possible only by individual creators with advanced technology. This may point to a new aesthetic in the era of global online consumption. Silliness, weirdness and superficial cuteness are no longer seen as the opposite of elegance, but as communication poison to dominate the market.
Left: Feng Junyuan,Interrogation, 2023, CGI, Archival inkjet print, 60 x 45 cm
Right: Feng Junyuan,Stone Skipping, 2023, CGI, Archival inkjet print, 40 x 60 cm
The two works Stone Skipping and Interrogation describe the remaining scenarios of human civilization in the slow post-apocalyptic time. As the sea levels rose, developed coastal cities were submerged, and small stones flew across the water to create ripples. The torture pen used to prevent suicide by swallowing food kept spinning indefinitely in his hand, as he wondered if the interrogator would be able to respond again. These vaguely sentimental scenes are inexplicably relaxing and seem to make the catastrophe that mankind is already facing less unbearable. In the uncertain relationship between nature and culture, the ecological balance rediscovered by the earth’s biosphere is a rare solace. Feng Junyuan found a kind of Zen enjoyment in moving images, and constantly repeating circles created an allegorical tragicomedy.
Chi HE
Chi HE was born in Gansu Province in 1978 and graduated from the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. In 2007 he founded the Xionghuang Group and in 2011 Nanshan Painting Group. In 2012 he launched “We Said Let There be Space and There Was Space.” From 2012 to 2014, he edited and contributed to Art Times magazine.
With poetic action and conceptual creation as their core, Chi HE works are unfettered by disciplinary boundaries, spanning poetry, performance, installation, sculpture, video, photography, painting, calligraphy, and exhibition curation, often making ordinary objects and daily life shine with their own brilliance. Based on the specific and unique living experiences of individuals who have left their hometowns in unsettled and volative times, he investigates and tidies up the mother tongue on which life relies and from which it is difficult to part, and explores how Chinese ethnic groups and Chinese culture face various contemporary problems and civilizational crises of mankind; and how individuals revolutionize, how individuals invent and participate in the possibility of creative construction of communities.
Chi HE’s major solo exhibitions include Sigh, Space Off the Island, Guangzhou, 2023; Prosperity, Meicheng Space, Shenzhen, 2023; Former Residence, Diplomatic Apartment No. 12, Beijing, 2022; Guwa (gū) Zhewa (dū), Guangzhou Gallery, Shanghai, 2019; Soundproof, Shiwan Space, Beijing, 2018; Separate Pavilion, Arrow Factory Space, Beijing, 2016; Swallow, Mo Fang Space, Beijing, 2016; Pearl, Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, 2014; Old Stuff , Yang Gallery, Beijing, 2013, etc.
Chi HE, A Copy of Liu Gongquan’s Calligraphy of the Xuanmi Pagoda Stele Inscription Series
2019, Ink on paper, Dimensions variable, 5 pieces in total
Calligraphy is an important element of Chi HE’s free and rich artistic creation. Beginning in 2004, Chi HE started copying classic works of historical calligraphy in a unique way, with the intention of creating an independent zone of time outside of his other creative work to engage in this method of “telling without doing.” Chi HE uses a rotation of five strokes and five colors to copy the classic works of previous generations of artists. Prima facie, this action has a clear anti-writing character, and anti-writing is fundamentally “anti-human”, similar to the strict discipline of religious believers. Through this method, the artist attempts to inventory and sort out the ethnic cultural gene sequences that are latent and sometimes apparent in the individual’s body; he also conducts a physical examination and remembrance of the inertial routines and fixed imaginations in the historical narrative of the national community.
Yujiang MA
Ma Yujiang is an artist and writer. Born in Shandong, China, Ma graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and now lives in Hong Kong. Ma’s works use conceptual art, action art, and painting as media and explore issues such as time, life, and existence. Currently he also contributes commentary to Ming Pao on a regular basis under the pen name Zhizha
Major solo exhibitions include: Mother and Son, Hong Kong Visual Arts Center, Hong Kong (2022); Heavy is the Night, Foo Tak Building, Hong Kong (2018), New Position Art, Cologne, Germany (2016), and The Vast, PearlLam Galleries, Hong Kong (2015).
Group exhibitions include: Fearless, Times Art Center, Berlin; Unbounded Art Season, Fei Art Museum, Guangzhou; Moments +, OCAT Shanghai Pavilion, Shanghai; Not Acting in Images, Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing; The First Huayu Art Festival, Sanya; and XXX Contemporary Art in the Next Decade, Today Art Museum, Beijing.
Yujiang MA, There is not a day when I am not lonely Series,
2019-2024, Oil painting on canvas, Dimensions variable, 19 pieces in total
Meeting at a corner (as shown above) one wall is a painting about the artist’s hometown, and the other wall is a painting about Hong Kong. At the end of 2013, the artist moved to Hong Kong. As a country boy, he was suddenly thrust into a whole new world, feeling lost, lonely, and bored. During that time, the artist did not know what else to do except wasting time, and did not know what meaning life could have for him. The only thought was to grow and become a big poplar tree. This series of works uses the transformation of identity and environment to explore the relationship with the environment. “A unique interpretation of the surrounding environment and materials from life; built-in human warmth and emotional levels” is the artist’s painting style. And further, “the relationship between expression and substance is expressed through expression, to cover up or reveal some deeper essence. ” The Hong Kong painted by the artist, although differing from his hometown in content and appearance, retains a deeper consistency via simple brushstrokes and subtle colors. From a subjective perspective, the artist “only pretended” to be a city-dweller, but this “pretending” itself is a kind of reality.
Orsolya ÁDER
Born in 1993, Orsolya ÁDER is a Hungarian artist. From the age of fifteen, she has developed a keen interest in abstract paintings. By liberating the picture from the constraints of representation, the depicted object becomes more mysterious yet also more sincere. In Mulan’s paintings, the “golden section” and the changes in three-dimensional space are at the core of her creation. Her paintings in both line and color deeply embody this philosophy. Using paint brushes instead of words, she creates works that become the carrier of her emotions and thoughts, conveying ineffable feelings.
Her recent projects and exhibitions include the group exhibitions Gabor Vertes Contemporary Art Collection (RaM Colosseum, Budapest, 2023), Hello, Peace (Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai, 2023) and the solo exhibitions Soul Reflection (Hungarian Embassy,Washington, D.C., 2023, Hearing Color (Ningbo Art Museum, 2022), Abstract Solo (21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, 2021), and at the Art Basel Miami Opening Exhibition (Cocoplum, Miami, 2021).
Orsolya Áder, INTO ANOTHER WORLD IX, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm
Left: Orsolya ÁDER, INTO ANOTHER WORLD V, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm
Right: Orsolya ÁDER, INTO ANOTHER WORLD VII, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm
“In this work hides a figure of a Chinese dragon, which requires careful observation to be seen.” The artist finds that such words often arise when her work is introduced to others in China. “There’s actually a Chinese dragon hidden inside, or a window, or a chess game.”
Such remarks reminded her of her landscape tours in China, when the tour guide usually asked tourists to look at a natural landscape, and asked them to imagine what the landscape resembled. A fairy, a turtle, a peach… She discovered that this kind of mimicry is not only an Eastern way of viewing, but also an understanding and interpretation of the world. Even though she was thinking about mathematical and geometric logic when creating a work, perhaps each of her paintings is a window to another world, a chess game waiting to be interpreted in a specific culture and context.
Linghao SHEN
Born in Shanghai, China in 1988, SHEN graduated from the Painting Department of the Shanghai School of Visual Arts, Fudan University, and graduated from the Experimental Art Department of the San Francisco Art Institute. He currently lives and works in Shanghai.
SHEN’s creative media covers photography, video, installation, and writing. In his creative genealogy, one pole originates from photography, like a sensor facing the real world, while the other pole touches the corporeal body and creates a sympathetic resonance of the body and the soul. The history, truth, time, and reality that he focuses on are all contained in the artistic scenes he creates through his very personal artistic voice. His respect for individual life and concern towards the current crisis of reality jointly construct a sense of care for “subjectivity.”
Over the years, SHEN’s artistic practice has been committed to the local and experimental exploration of light and space. His representative optical-field interactive installations explore the possibilities of technology in art through the use of new materials and technologies, exploring its artistic possibility and perceptual extension, and as a syntax of ideas. He uses the “photoresistance” of photosensitive materials to present the retrospection of time and the perishability of memory. Through the role of images in the formation of individual experience, he gives intensity to a specific space, achieving a current connection with every audience member present, and reconstructing time. The relationship with memory evokes human vulnerability, presence and synaesthesia.
SHEN’s major solo exhibitions include Hope, Urbancross Gallery, Shanghai, 2020; and When the curtain rises, our conversation is already over—leaving light to develop, leaving Space, Shanghai 2017. His works have been exhibited in art institutions and museums internationally, including: TAG·New Contemporary-Offshore, Qingdao, Xihai Art Museum, 2023; The 7th Guangzhou Triennial: Transformation, Guangdong, Guangdong Art Museum, 2023; Beidou Bailiequan, Shanghai, Want Space, 2022; Resistance of the Sleepers, Qinhuangdao, UCCA Dune Art Museum, 2020.
Linghao SHEN, The Ripples of Light – River, Water and Time, 2022
Photosensitive painting
(Acrylic sheets, Photosensitive resin, Epoxy resin, Spray paint, Silkscreen print, Plants, UV lights)
60 x 60 x 10 cm, A set of three
In the work River, Water and Time, the artist continues his creative process using light, photography and field, reproducing the texture of the river and the ripples and traces of the water at the exhibition site through photography and photosensitive materials. His method of image creation can be traced back to the tradition of “object photography.” At the same time, through his experimental use of optical materials, the artist transforms the “light development” phenomenon of photosensitive materials into the visual syntax of his works, and extends the perception of photography. Boundaries and spatial forms become a fleeting image of time.
Chutian SHU
Chutian SHU (b.1995) graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Pratt Institute of Art in New York in 2019. Her recent works focus on individual memories in the evolutionary process of nature, communities and cities through images and performances and their establishment as electronic archives from a private perspective.Her works have been exhibited at Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art; Jimei-Arles International Photography Festival 2023, Xiamen; Fuxing Art Center, Shanghai; Sea World Culture and Art Center, Shenzhen; Space Air Raid Shelter, Sichuan; The Steuben Gallery, New York; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York; and Tutu Gallery, New York. Her recent residency projects include: L.A.P. × Wuhan Image Art Center International Artist Residency, Wuhan, and Organhaus Beibei Project, Chongqing.
Chutian SHU, Xianjia New Village, Chuan he zhou I, 2021, Archival inkjet print, 75 × 105 cm
Chutian SHU, Xianjia New Village, Chuan he zhou II, 2021, Archival inkjet print, 75 × 105 cm
Chutian SHU, Xianjia New Village, Hou river, 2021, Archival inkjet print, 75 × 105 cm
In 2000, the artist moved with her family to the “Xianjia New Village” community on the edge of the city. Because she was under 6 years old and could not go to school, she took a year off and played alone in the community. Her memories of this year are always filled with large green areas composed of trees and grass with dense leaves and foliage, and her fantasies are filled with mysterious and surreal colors. Many years after she moved away from the community, she came back only to find urbanization displacing the hometown in her memory with large residential buildings. She began to look for scenery that matched her memories of that former time, and instigated interventions through actions and settings as a means of recreating her childhood memories. This series of works is named after the location where it was shot.
Yiquan WANG
Wang Yiquan is an active figure in China’s contemporary art scene, working as an artist and curator, and is the founding partner of the spatial practice Acts and Pathways. Born in 1987 in Beijing, he has lived and worked in Shanghai since 2014. His recent research interests include the practices and generational trends of artists from China’s Post- 1980s Generation, the transformation of factories and craftsmanship from a planned economy to a market economy, and China’s radical urbanization.
As an artist, Wang constantly challenges the format of exhibition-making. He transforms various artistic mediums into performative settings to create participatory live events and narrative spatial configurations, providing individual commentary on social and cultural issues. His works have been exhibited in institutions such as the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong (2022); Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai (2020); Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Japan (2018); Beijing Design Week, Beijing (2016, 2017); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2016); chi K11 art museum, Shanghai (2016); CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2015); and am art space, Shanghai (2013), among others.
Curating exhibitions and planning art programs are integral aspects of Wang’s practice. He adheres to the concept of “Curating Everything,” viewing curating as an art form. Over the past decades, he has organized various thematic exhibitions and public events. Recent projects include The Hyperlink of Food, Hushiguang Art Eco Site, Longyou County, Zhejiang Province (2024); Untitled, China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Shanghai (2023); Tan Chui Mui: Just Because You Pressed the Shutter?, Rencontres d’Arles, France (2023); FELLOWS, SNAP, Shanghai, (2022), and Meditations on the Urban Spectacle, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Sun Ke Villa, Shanghai (2021).
Yiquan WANG, Packaging Research: Silk Flowers, 2024
Installation (Cardboard boxes, Artist’s patterns, Digital printing, Adhesive tapes)
Dimensions variable © Wang Yiquan; Photo courtesy of the artist
Artist’s statement
“Some manufacturers in Sweden have reported that in recent years, there have been many improvements in the packaging of our (country’s) export commodities, especially in the substitution of wooden boxes for cartons. The improvements have been good, and there has also been some progress in small packaging, but the pace is slow.”
——”Foreign Trade Packaging Trends”, compiled by China Export Commodity Packaging Research Institute, Issue 1, 1978, page 14
“Export commodity packaging and decoration is an indispensable part of international trade and has important political and economic significance… and from one side it reflects the spiritual outlook of our country and reflects… the development level of culture and art.”
——”Packaging Research Materials”, compiled by the Packaging Advertising Group of Shanghai Foreign Trade Bureau, 1976, page 5
Packaging Research: Silk Flowers was developed from one of my projects, Flowers of the Motherland. Through research on the history and production status of handmade silk flowers in different regions of China, my attention shifted from the silk flower craft to light industrial commodities’ role in China’s foreign trade and export earning process. The “skin” of these light industrial commodities—those graphics on the packaging— contains strong elements of the politics and art history of that specific era.
During my research process I collected large amounts of text and image information about foreign trade packaging. After digesting and processing this information, I imagined and simulated various outer packaging for commercial products, and transferred them onto cartons commonly used in commodity transportation to form fictitious packaging. Packaging Research: Silk Flowers is one of the works in the “Packaging Research” series.
Yiquan WANG, Very Personal [Video still], 2022
Single-channel video, color, sound, 10’12”
This work was commissioned by CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile)
© Wang Yiquan; Photo courtesy of the artist
Artist’s statement
Very Personal is a summary of my research on silk flowers over a period of time. Many sparks that were generated during the research process were not yet enough to ignite the next flame. Therefore, I would like to use some very personal visual expressions to briefly describe my thoughts and ideas.
My narrative method is a messy whisper, a weaving of memories and prospects, in which there are real personal experiences, as well as historical and fictional intertexts. I incorporated some selected pictures, texts, old and new video materials, and my own narration to make this image flow. Beyond the images, in a special project for the exhibition, my collaborative dancers staged a live on-site performance that further articulated these sparks of thought. The process of creating this video work took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it very difficult to travel, and forced people into self-isolation. This led me to choose documentary and ready-made footage to make the film rather than shooting on location, and I also intentionally echoed the tradition of narrative films. In addition, during the epidemic, my editor and I were in Shanghai and Hong Kong respectively, and we met online to conduct editing work.
Tant Yunshu ZHONG
Tant Yunshu ZHONG (b.1990, Wuhan, China) lives and works in Shanghai. In 2014, she received his MFA from the University of the Arts London, and was nominated for the Huayu Youth Award in 2015. ZHONG pays attention to all the moments in life that can be used to resist and to question. These frozen moments may be simple, elegant, a bit comic, or even absurd. In her material sculptures, there is no precise demarcation. They are dispersed but mutually restrictive. She specializes in connecting, arranging, combining or constructing multiple associations between different objects and words in practice, and integrates the contradictions hidden in the organic matter of life. The state of the work seems to want to return to some fundamental laws and rhythms, but also vaguely attempts to break them.
The artist’s solo exhibitions include: “Where does a moving person sleep at night?”, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2023); “Having a Good Night’s Sleep“, 2023 LISTE Art Basel, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Basel, 2023); ” “Dingfu Zaojun“, LINSEED (Shanghai, 2022); “The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog“, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2020); Long, J: Gallery (Shanghai, 2017) ; “Sydney and Sydney Paper“, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2016); “Power of Power of Power“, Remaining Space (Wuhan, 2016)
Tant Yunshu ZHONG, On Tenterhooks, 2023
Metal basket, Ironwork decoration, Ceramic, Cotton balls, 30 x 50 x 20 cm
Tant Yunshu ZHONG, Having a Good Night’s Sleep, 2023
Quilt, Japanese synthetic fabric, Placemat, Shanghai Chongming handmade vintage fabric, 150 x 190 cm
© Courtesy of the artist and TabulaRasa Gallery
The basic rule for all rugs is demonstrated here: there is a rug at the bottom, a handmade fabric or recycled tablecloth in the middle, and a placemat on the top. The foot pads and the sleeping blanket are regarded as a solid foundation, a prerequisite for stability: a piece of ground on which action can take place. The top placemat is a symbol: The food on which we survive enters the body from this covering. The energy source of the circle starts from this platform full of rituals.
What’s teetering here in On Tenterhooks are elevated cotton and ceramic water glasses. What maintains their balance and stability is the hollow base, a hollow basket that can be easily lifted. At the moment of being loaded and lifted, the two are competing with each other, and at the same time offsetting and protecting each other.
Tant Yunshu ZHONG, Dark Sun, 2023
Plastic frame mirror, Wood frame mirror, Wood carving, Paint
left: 39 x 40.5 x 4 cm, right: 37 x 37 x 4 cm
© Photo courtesy of the artist
If all fragmentary ideas must have a source, you can imagine a picture like this: a mouse is reading a book called “The Story of the Explorer” by the window opposite the bed in the Yangxin Hall of the Forbidden City. Three elements appear here: 1) A person with the most power in the world chooses to live in a small bedroom that gathers energy and is multi-functional; 2) A low-level, flexible animal running around in astonishing numbers is closely connected with humans as a spreader of information and diseases; 3) a book that tells the stories of intrepid individuals who discover the vast and mysterious land we inhabit. The artist is interested in the scale of the body itself and the attitude of the body to the scale of the surrounding environment (big or small, far or near, familiar or unfamiliar).
Dark Sun is one of the works in a comprehensive exhibition project. The project discusses some applications of common home decoration materials sold in the Chinese market in living spaces, including the flat decorative treatment of three-dimensional images. The two mirrors in Dark Sun, placed opposite each other in a tight corner, both reflect and contain one another. The “person in the mirror” reflected in the original function of the mirror can also be the mirror itself.
zzyw (Yang WANG & Zhenzhen QI)
zzyw is a New York-based research and art duo formed in 2013 by Huanggua (Yang WANG) and Zhenzhen Qi. They produce softwares, real-time analogies, computer games, and critical writing that examine the impact of computation in culture, education, and politics. zzyw was a resident artist at EYEBEAM, a new media artist center in New York; a technology resident artist at Pioneer Works, a center for arts and sciences in New York; a resident artist at Babycastles, an independent gaming institution in New York; and NEW INC, a cultural and technology incubator at the New Museum in New York. zzyw also teaches simulation, games, and world-building at New York University and The Cooper Union. Outside of zzyw, Qi Zhenzhen is currently a professor at the University of Connecticut, and Huanggua is an independent designer and software developer. Both graduated from NYU’s ITP research program in 2014.
zzyw, Other Spring [Video still], 2023, Single channel video, 12′ 34″
Other Spring is a theoretically oriented fictional world creation project. This diverse project, which includes a research paper, a virtual world and a short film, uses the unique creative method of world-building to critically analyze the impact of computational media, automation and artificial intelligence on society and their profound influence on culture. Inspired by the ancient Chinese fable Peach Blossom Spring, the project explores the possibilities of “heretic computing” (quoting media theorist Alexander R. Galloway), thereby challenging our current society’s understanding of computing, namely, the pursuit of efficiency, convenience and data exchange.
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