Chen Shiying at the exhibition site of "Totem", Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022_04
Following the 2021 large-scale titanium sculpture exhibition Titanium: A Dialogue between Matter and Time, Chinese artist Wallace Chan returned to Venice to launch the art exhibition TOTEM during the 59th Venice Biennale. Opening on April 20, 2022, Totem presents the artist's large titanium sculptures in the form of a large-scale, site-specific installation. The exhibition will run until October 23, 2022.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
"TOTEM" refers to a long-standing vehicle of primitive age gods. The title connects the different dimensions of Chen Shiying's Buddhist philosophy, including reverence for the natural world and the excavation of the inner spirituality of sculpture. The exhibition features a large-scale installation consisting of Chen Shiying's 10-meter titanium sculpture Titan XIV, A Dialogue between Matter and Time (previously exhibited in the central exhibition area of art021 Shanghai 21 Contemporary Art Fair in 2021), scattered across a specific space field of Fondaco Marcello.
The sense of power of Chen Shiying's large-scale installation does not come from a single image, but is generated by the combined relationship between multiple parts. Once dismantled, the sculpture's integrity as a unified image ceases to exist, suggesting the fragility and impending collapse of the past order. The work is a metaphor for the disintegration and imbalance experienced by today's society under global issues such as polarization and climate change.
Ungrouped iron beams and intricately carved titanium heads are scattered across the ground space, and the viewer is invited to get up close and personal with the elements in the sculpture from different angles, inspiring a whole new perspective. The experience of walking in deconstructed sculpture evokes the viewer's awareness of the spatial relationship of the work. The exhibition also shows an assembly diagram that guides how to install the sculpture as a whole, alluding to the hope of reorganization, connection and re-equilibrium.
As one of the world's leading jewelry artists and visual artists in the Chinese world, Chen Shiying is famous for his jewelry creations, and is the first contemporary Chinese jewelry artist to be collected by the British Museum, and his achievements in visual arts, sculpture and installation have gradually become known in recent years.
Chen Shiying said: "The concept of the exhibition comes from my personal contemplation and curiosity about the mysteries of life, nature and the universe. I focus on exploring the mysteries of matter and form, as well as understanding the difference between imaginary space and real physical matter. ”
Chen Shiying and curator James Putnam at the totem exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Curated by senior British curator James Putnam, the exhibition commented: "As the title suggests, this exhibition is related to the basic principle of totemism, namely that there is a consistent spiritual connection between humans and Mother Nature, and that cooperation must be made in order to coexist. The peaceful, unfathomable facial contours depicted in Chen Shiying's sculptures represent a mysterious spirit, a totem expressing a transcendental state of absolute unity. ”