"Light and fire bring light and warmth to the world, leading the way, illuminating all things and themselves. Light converges into the eyes of the world, and fire is the burning body and bones. We have all incarnated as the fire and light of youth, in front of the self, as objects of illumination and illumination. Curator Feng Xi wrote.
On March 19, artist Liu Zhan's solo exhibition "Shine on You" opened at the Pifeng Gallery. This is the artist's first collaboration with The Gallery, and the first major solo exhibition of Liu Zhan's status as an independent artist after leaving UNMASK.
Curator Feng Xi divides the works created by artists in the past 10 years into three groups, and without changing the original spatial structure, the creative content with different themes and forms is embedded in three spatial contexts that can be viewed independently, while maintaining contextual relevance and internal logic.
Showroom scene
In the first space, a small semiconductor radio purchased from idle fish forms the shape of a satellite transmitter, slowly rotating and making a noise, intended to explore the transmission, reception, dissemination and shielding of information in the information society.
In the second space, Liu Zhan welds the industrial waste he collected into sculptures of various shapes, in which electronic screens hang, some play Hollywood blockbusters, and some play videos of the welding process with sparks splashing. Heavy, icy industrial waste pairs with exciting Hollywood blockbusters to form a stark visual metaphor. The sparks that burst out during the welding process are like the "fire and light of youth", illuminating the entire space and illuminating the people who come and go.
In the third space, customized neon billboards create a "Yiwu Mini Market" atmosphere, and all works are piled up like small commodities on the table for people to observe and choose. They are full of color and strange shapes, completely eliminating the sense of distance between high art and the audience, and intimate and casual as if you suddenly encounter something in a small commodity market, for unknown purposes but will be bought casually.
Feng Xi introduced that as an artist, Liu Zhan seems to have been silent for too long. Over the past 10 years, "Exploring the Mysteries of Animal Reproduction" exhibited at Magic Stone Space in 2017 and "Balcony" at Space 12 of the Diplomatic Apartment in 2018 have been presented as individual projects. Through two projects with very different modes of expression, Liu Zhan breaks away from the stubborn experience of sculptural language as a creative method and unloads the concept of uniqueness guided by methodology. At the same time, instead of focusing on the critical perspective of consumerism, we began to pay attention to the relationship between the fusion and alienation between social fate and individual destiny, and the creation became more diversified.
"Shine on You" is Liu Zhan's first important solo exhibition after he restored his status as an independent artist, which is a presentation of sculptural works? Or did the artist open up his own expression after 10 years of self-game? All the questions, look for answers in the exhibition site.
The exhibition runs until May 5.
Nandu reporter Huang Qian