The Paper's reporter Qian Xue'er
On June 12th, "Curiosity Without Boundaries: Mickey Art Exhibition" was held at the Yuz Museum of Art in Shanghai, presenting the theme creations of 50 artists (groups) from all over the world in a space of 2,600 square meters.
Unfolding in a labyrinthine space, the exhibition invites people to explore the unchanging innocence and curiosity of Mickey, from comic walls, neon signs, to print prints, in various scenes of popular culture and contemporary art, artists reinterpret the animated character from their own perspectives, showing that "everyone has a Mickey in their heart".
The Paper understands that the exhibition is jointly organized by Disney and UCCA Lab, a subsidiary of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA).
The reporter saw at the scene that the comic wall, neon signs, print prints... In various scenes of popular culture and contemporary art, Mickey's image has been interpreted differently. "Curiosity Without Boundaries: Mickey Art Exhibition" unfolds in a labyrinthine space, making people curious in the transformation of space, thus opening an exploration of "Mickey".
In 1928, the world's first animated sound film "Steamboat Willie" was released in New York, and Mickey mouse entered the public eye and became the memory of generations of people. In the past hundred years, Mickey has developed from the protagonist of the early animated short films to the representative symbol of today's global popular culture, spanning different cultures and regions, and influencing various fields. In 2018, to celebrate Mickey's 90th anniversary, Mickey's Art Exhibition was held in New York and toured to Tokyo in 2020. In addition to retaining the works of important artists in New York and Tokyo, the "Curiosity Without Boundaries: Mickey Art Exhibition" invited more than 20 Chinese contemporary artists to carry out new creative practices around Mickey.
Curiosity Without Boundaries: Mickey Art Exhibition Global Tour Shanghai Station Exhibition Site
As a well-known cartoon image, Mickey became a carrier of people's memories and was also given various meanings. During World War II and the postwar years, Disney turned Mickey into a symbol of innocence, hope, and american spirit. In the hands of the artists, Mickey became an interpretation of their personal style.
Daniel Arjuna, The Hidden Mickey 2018
Alek Shirin, "A Beautiful Day with Minnie mouse and Daisy" 2019
At the exhibition site, the surging news reporter saw that the artist Daniel Arsham's work "Hidden Mickey" adopted its signature style of extending out of the wall to reconstruct the classic image of Mickey in people's hearts. Like many of his many other works, hard plaster has a soft, light, windy side that envelops the traces of time. In fact, many of the artists' works are related to time and memory. For example, artist Alake Shilling's "A Beautiful Day with Minnie mouse and daisy" extracts artistic elements from nature and memory, placing Minnie in a fantasy world that makes people feel gentle and intimate; artist Shinique Smith's work "Bale Variation No. 0026 (Ode to My First Love Mickey Mouse) uses Mickey Plush dolls from different eras to construct a large soft sculpture to create something that the audience "wants to embrace".
Michael Bossanko, "One More Mile, Another Brand New Smile"
Keiichi Tana,"Mickey's Journey to Japan" 2018.
In 3000% Mickey's Brick Bear, Darren Romanelli wraps a large trendy toy in recycled Disney textiles from different eras to "freely explore Mickey and reinterpret its meaning." Ariana Papademetropoulos constructs a door to memories using photographs from her grandmother's michi treasure house as a reference to My Mother's 1979 Bedroom. Keiichi Tana regarded "Mickey smiling in a dark theater" as his "starting point for all creations", and created the colorful psychedelic painting "Mickey's Journey to Japan" based on childhood memories and fantasies.
Arianna Papademetropoulos, My Mother's Bedroom in 1979
Brian Rodinger, The Limited Imitation of Sound, 2018
As a special curatorial unit of the Shanghai station, the "Mickey & / in China" section of the exhibition presents the commissioned creations of Chinese artists, reinterpreting this animated character in different contexts from multiple perspectives. Zhang Xinyi's "Dream Net" selects the iconic symbol of Mickey's arm as a creative element, while Deng Naixuan's "Parallel World" works with traditional craftsmen to interpret the different Mickeys in their eyes. In "Three Mickeys", Huang Qiqin uses computer graphics technology to list and overlap three Mickey images searched from the Internet, bringing viewers a familiar and vague visual experience. Lu Pingyuan's work "Hulu" draws inspiration from the traditional Chinese mythological concept of life, combining Mickey's head shape with the gourd to form a cultural dialogue. In Li Gang's work "Bee", the artist replaces the lens glass on glasses, magnifying glasses, windows and television sets with sugar "lenses" and remakes the world recorded by others.
Deng Naixuan, Parallel Worlds, 2021
Li Gang ,Bee 2021
At the opening ceremony of "Curiosity Without Boundaries: Mickey Art Exhibition", you Yang, one of the curators of the exhibition and deputy director of UCCA, mentioned the connection between Mickey's animated image and modern and contemporary art. In fact, since the end of the 19th century, modern art has been different from its previous openness to popular culture, embracing images and forms from the visual culture of newspapers, advertisements, cartoons, and graffiti. In 1990, the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted the exhibition "High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture," which explores the subtle connections between art, commerce, and popular culture in the modern visual experience. From Picasso's collage-based Cubist works to Andy Warhol's artistic re-creation of consumer cultural images, to Pop and street artists such as Keith Haring and Jean Basquiat, the language of art, mass culture, is not a clear line.
Noise temple Dancing Mickey 2021
In the creation of Mickey's theme, it is also possible to develop the artistic medium. In the exhibition, many artists use digital technology to interpret Mickey's image. For example, in Dancing Mickey, artist Noise Temple uses digital parameters to reconstruct Mickey's digital image, combined with glitch techniques to create dynamic images and sound effects, and stimulates a period of Mickey's morphological "dance" process. Liu Jiayu's immersive projection installation "Dreaming of Waves" allows the audience to find Mickey in the Pacific Ocean through the astronomical telescope placed in space, which is riding the wind and waves towards you. Cao Yuxi's interactive installation "Binary Pattern Mickey Edition" uses a custom prototype LED screen and acrylic cutting board to visualize the captured audience face through face recognition technology, thus constructing a dynamically changing Mickey face. As the viewer approaches the work, Mickey's face will change from the original black and white pattern to the viewer's own face. Perhaps this also presents the meaning of the exhibition, that is, "everyone has a Mickey in their heart".
The exhibition "Curiosity Without Boundaries: Mickey Art Exhibition" will be on view until October 10.
Editor-in-Charge: Lu Linhan
Proofreader: Luan Meng