"The Metaphor of Objects"
——Huang Qiyou, Wang Yichu, Xing Yanchao, Zeng Zhiqin Four-person exhibition
Artistic Director
Xiang Shikui
Exhibition execution
Chen Yue / Tian Shuo
Exhibition time
2020.12.06-2021.02.06
Exhibition venue
Shenzhen Futian District Shenye Shangcheng LOFT Town LC526
Haihan Art Space
"The term Synecdoche is derived from the Greek word and usually refers to the substitution of part for the whole, or the substitution of the whole for the part, or the substitution of material for the constituent things, i.e., a relation between the ontology and the borrowed body, which is of a subordinate nature." Beginning with Aristotle's Rhetoric, throughout the millennia, the artistic technique of metaphor has gradually spilled over into the scope of linguistics and extended to different categories or different forms of artistic creation.
The four artists in this exhibition, although their works are very different and unique, when they are juxtaposed together, we can clearly perceive a rhetorical commonality - the metaphor of the object landscape and the image symbol to the historical, cultural and practical situations.
In the current art circle, Huang Qiyou is like a modern Sven literati, who maintains a high degree of vigilance against those works that are popular in the times. His "landscape" is not only the result of his philosophy of escaping from the city all the way, but also the product of his single-minded dive into nature and the ancients. In the face of the ancients, he once bluntly said that he wanted to "look up at the mountain and find a way to bypass the peak to reach the back mountain." Therefore, the metaphor for Huang Qiyou's "back mountain" is that "xishan" is "drunk sunset" after the peak, and "pitching view" is messy.
"Sunset Photo 1" Huang Qiyou Acrylic on Canvas 25x30cm 2019© Photo courtesy of the artist and Haihan Art Space
Wang Yichu's preference for scenery is from beginning to end, and she has discovered the genes of coexistence in eastern landscapes and western landscapes. In the past ten years, she has started from the technical language of Cubism, to the flat and geometric expression of shape and color, and then to the "tendency to weaken the symbolic function of objects", and her landscape paintings have gradually become "still life paintings". In her new works, those suspended symbols that are detached from the "standardized form" also become the ontology that the viewer needs to rely on imagination to penetrate.
"Elephant Six" Wang Yichu Color on Paper 35×35cm 2020© Photo courtesy of Artist and Haihan Art Space
Xing Yanchao's works contain two core demands: one is that the artist relies on the incompletely controllable penetration of ink on rice paper to produce a mottled effect on the picture, thus interfering with the viewer's viewing of the original image, thereby deriving a new way of viewing; the other is that he appropriates the classic image and reconstructs the original image by adding, or cutting, or intercepting, or covering. The reworked image, whether it is its object shape or the content of the scene, is a metaphor for the artist's creative concept and behavior itself.
"One Trick good chess" Xing Yanchao ink on paper integrated material 145x135cm 2018© image courtesy of artist and Haihan Art Space
Zeng Zhiqin's new work can be described as a confirmation that he has pulled his feet from the surrealist narrative system and turned to the exploration of the "quality" of ink media. His "rusty" mountains, hanging waterfalls, bright moons... They all have adjective-like attributes, and when they are intertwined, they shape the unique aesthetic temperament of natural landscapes on the one hand; on the other hand, they construct a virtual world of mysterious elephants. The former is for metaphors, the latter for metaphors.
"Two in the Bamboo Forest" Zeng Zhiqin Silk Coloring & Gold Leaf 78x78cm 2020© Image courtesy of artist and Haihan Art Space
Interestingly, when the works of the four artists are displayed together in the exhibition hall, the mutual wandering between objects and images and the penetration of rhetoric each other are like unveiling the mystery of a huge labyrinth, attracting the viewer to go from one landscape to another, from a fork to another, exploring the mystery of the labyrinth in the continuous deviation, perhaps this is the metaphor of the work to the exhibition, the creator to the viewer.