Fashion magazines, old photos, old clothes... After the artistic "collage", what kind of magical picture will be produced?
A contemporary art exhibition "For a Bigger Picture" with "Collage" as the clue will be held from now until May 8 at APSMUSEUM on the third floor of L+MALL of Lujiazui Center.
■ Exhibition site
The exhibition invited 12 artists (groups) from Cai Dongdong, Lei Lei, Ling Yun & Yang Fudong, Liu Ding, Luo Yongjin, Ni Youyu, Ren Lingfei, Wang Gongxin, Yin Xiuzhen, Yu Ji, Zhang Enli and Zhou Xiaohu to participate in exploring the "collage" technique by integrating new art forms such as video, installation and digital technology.
David, known as the "Godfather of English Art"? Hockney has pointed out that the Cubist "collage" method was an important invention of 20th-century art.
"Collage" is not only a technical means, but also a new artistic language, reflecting the way of feeling, observing and thinking of the postmodernist new art vision.
■Zhang Enli "Hair" synthetic material collage 1100x800mm 2014
Stepping into the exhibition hall, the first work that catches your eye is Zhang Enli's "Hair" series.
The artist cuts images of hair of different colors and forms from fashion magazines, collaged into layers of "visual swirls" gathered together.
■ Ni Youyu Collage photography "Getaway" series
Ni Youyu's collage photography series "Getaway" is a collection of thousands of old photos of landscapes from different periods collected from flea markets around the world for tailoring and collage, and combines the traditional Chinese landscape painting conception with Western collage photography.
Through long-term observation and contrast of details, the photographs are cropped and reassembled to create a reverie landscape of long rolls of landscapes.
At a time when computer retouching technology has become seemingly traceless, he uses only a knife and a ruler to perfectly integrate the landscapes of different periods and different countries into new landscapes in the form of "simple and rough".
■ Cai Dongdong "Night" gelatin silver halide photo, acrylic, mirror, wood, photographic lens, cloth 2000x2000x2000mm 2018 courtesy of The Cloud Collection
Cai Dongdong's exhibit "Night" is an old four-fold screen in emerald green. The original picture of the screen can no longer be found, and the artist has connected and woven the nearly 1,000 old photos of only about 1 inch in his collection to fill the screen with new pictures.
Much of Cai's work over the past decade or so has been to divert and collage hundreds of thousands of old photographs from his collection.
His works cross the boundaries between the two worlds of reality and image; especially for the use of mirrors, it allows today's time to be collaged into the images of the past, so that an image space has multiple tenses at the same time.
■ Lei Lei "Weekend" Image 6:45:2019
■ Lei Lei (from left to right) Dynamics 5 1260x1080mm 2019. Dynamics 9 1200x1020mm 2019
Lei Lei's "Weekend" series is a collage of a series of old photos. The photographs themselves are often a decomposition of continuous motion, with the artist reconnecting them in a specific arrangement.
Many of his other series are also created in collage. Under his meticulous collage and coloring, family photos from decades ago, or once popular patterns, can be resurrected into vivid moments.
■ Ling Yun, Yang Fudong "Worship the Stars and Moon Slow" Oil paint, ink, birch bark, watercolor paper Collage painting 600x400mm 2021
Ling Yun and Yang Fudong's collaborative work "Worship the Stars and Moon Slowly" is a small birch bark superimposed on watercolor paper. "Worship the stars and the moon slowly" is the song dynasty word brand name, performed by the Tang Dynasty's jiaofang song, there are ancient women worshiping the moon to send affection.
The artist said, "The epidemic seems to have slowed down time, and you can read quietly and concentrate on painting." When the work was completed, the word suddenly appeared in the mind and was captured. ”
The quiet and simple atmosphere carried by the name of the word itself permeates the artist's creative state and is also delicately expressed in the picture.
■ Luo Yongjin "Oriental Pearl" printing number 10 art micro-spray, art paper, aluminum frame 2870x560mm 2006 "Jin Mao Tower" printing number 10 art micro-spray, art paper, aluminum frame 1820x660mm2005
Luo Yongjin's work "Oriental Pearl" divides the "Oriental Pearl" and "Jin Mao Tower" that shine at night into pieces of light and shadow flowing parts, which seems to dissolve the sense of oppression brought by the huge urban skyscrapers to people.
Many of Luo Yongjin's works use collage to form huge scales, focusing on the representation of specific spaces, such as urban spaces and natural landscapes. This is not only to get a "bigger picture" on the image, but more interestingly, this collection (collage) contains precisely the decomposition of viewing, reflecting the relationship between modern people and the external world.
■ Ren Lingfei "Renovation" Collector's Grade Art Micro Spray UV Micro Spray, Yake 1680x1092mm 2021
Ren's "Renovation" is selected from her ongoing "From That Day" series.
The artist collages family photos from different periods into a photograph of an empty room in order to "renovate" the home that carries the memories of her life with her mother but has been vacant for a long time.
■ Yin Xiuzhen Wall Instrument No. 16 Ceramics, Old Clothes 1020x1020x120mm 2018-2019
In Yin Xiuzhen's Wall Instrument No. 16, the most commonly used iconic material in the artist's previous works, the old clothes that are regarded as the "second skin" of human beings, are preserved, and a new relationship and experience occurs with ceramics. These soft and warm old clothes and hard and cold porcelain plates form a tactile contradiction and visual harmony.
These "ready-made" collages are both cracked and stitched, creating a strong tension between two very different material textures.
Professor Gu Zheng, academic advisor of the exhibition and school of journalism of Fudan University, said that the 12 artists participating in the exhibition have cleverly used the technique of "collage" in their creations and extended it, reflecting the individual's thinking and feelings about the multi-faceted society.
He said that these exhibited works reflect the in-depth influence of the "collage" art technique born from modernism on contemporary art, and greatly expand the definition of this art style.
■ Wang Gongxin "Bystander" marble slab, led lights, 3D printing lights, cowhide, TV screen, camera, motor 1810x1850x130mm 2020
In his view, the tangible technique of "collage" provides infinite vitality for the expression of contemporary art, and also activates the vitality of artistic creation.
He hopes that this exhibition will invite the audience to further reflect on its new possibilities in the 21st century. David? Hockney says that "collage" is "for a larger picture", and the title of this exhibition refers not only to its expansion in the creation and viewing horizons of specific works, but also to the "larger picture" of art and reality itself that allows us to see art and reality itself.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by APSMUSEUM and Lujiazui Center L+MALL.
"For a Bigger Picture" exhibition
Exhibition time: March 8, 2022 to May 8, 2022
Venue: APSMUSEUM (301, 3rd Floor, L+MALL, Lujiazui Center, Shanghai)