Art Experience Gallery presents “Being Squeezed”, the first solo exhibition of works in Hong Kong by renowned China artist Na Wei.

From a distance, Na Wei’s works in the “Being Squeezed” series appear as gorgeous wall hanging carpets. Approaching them, you will be surprised to discover that the delicate patterns are not knitted with yarn; they are, created with infinite microscopic threads of oil paint that have been thoughtfully applied. These are oil paintings in the form of woven carpets, 2 to 3 cm in thickness, 3-dimensional, having the power to topple the viewer’s senses, and the viewer is led to believe a subverted visual experience.

Creative inspirations occur inadvertently. It was years ago when the artist accidentally stepped on some paint tubes on the floor, which squeezed the oil paint out. Na Wei’s curiosity was captured by the resultant disorderly, complex and intricate patterning of the extruded paint. Instantly, the artist felt such extrusion of paint coincided with the birth of a new life from its mother that both actualities went through their inaugural contact and connection with the society.

Then, how to link up this state of the paint with life and society more figuratively? Na Wei chose the carpet form to be the cultural symbol, and then he created “filamentous colour carpets” that are able to put the viewer in a confusion of true and false realities. Minority peoples in northern China use carpets to provide their homes with insulation from the outside bitter coldness in winter. Na Wei is an ethnic minority in Liaoning. His life is inseparable from carpets. Same as the real beautiful carpets woven by substantial skilled labour, Na Wei utilized supernal techniques of unique artistic creativity to craft his “carpets”. In his reconstructed “carpets”, one sees exquisite patterns created by interweaving endless fine threads of oil paint. The works not only mirror the immense efforts of their creator but also a strong tension and vitality. Through overturning the normal perception of the viewer, the artist wants to communicate across a "to-re-examine-and-to-re-recognize" concept, by which he hopes the viewer can re-examine the interrelationships between work, culture, society and art, which enriches the substances of the works and makes it possible to interpret the works in a multitude of ways.

“Being Squeezed” drives one to think of terms such as “be disappeared” and “be resigned”, which are used by the media frequently nowadays. Their passive construction emerged from the special situation that some individuals lose their right to self-determination and hence they are unable to exercise control over or prevention of certain happenings, an emphasis of a forced “passive state”. “To squeeze” means to apply force to compress. When the artist witnessed the process of oil paint being squeezed out from the tubes, he associated the occurrence with the aging of life in tough living and the ruthless passage of time. Such is a parallel to the life any contemporary individual lives—after being squeezed out from their mother, the individual spends their life compressed between time, space and counterparts. Throughout the journey of life, the individual is caught in a passive position with nowhere to hide. “Being Squeezed” is a response to the modern state of existence that whether in the sense of space or freedom, people are being “squeezed”, a situation which they are helplessly bound to face and deal with.

-Art Experience Gallery

Image: © Na Wei
Courtesy of the artist and Art Experience Gallery