White Cube Hong Kong presents Inside The White Cube, showcasing the works of two mainland Chinese artists Jiang Zhi and Shi Qing, curated by Bao Dong. The exhibition is based on the Inside The White Cube project by the gallery which aims to showcase the works of artists not normally associated with the gallery. Jiang and Shi both emerged from the radical, experimental art scene in late-1990s China and each developed a distinctive context and language for their work. This is White Cube Hong Kong’s first contemporary Asian art undertaking.
Jiang Zhi’s practice includes photography, video, installation and painting, as well as documentary film and text, reflecting on philosophical questions about what constitutes ‘reality’ or ‘truth’. Following his early focus on specific cultural and political topics, Jiang’s more recent work addresses wider issues concerning ideas about the temporality and materiality of objects, as well as the broader socio-political context in which the art is made and interpreted.
The exhibition title The Sight, refers to the act of seeing and the passage of time, and hints at the artist’s understanding of the illusory and mutable nature of the world. In his series of photographs entitled Love Letters, he explores the visual and temporal themes of photography itself, as well as the mechanism by which the image comes into being. The burning flowers are not only the subjects, but also the light source by which the image is captured. In works such as the The Gift or 0.7% Salt, the videos do not yield a narrative structure but rather record a period of time. Jiang does not set out to dictate the means of production of his works, allowing the elements of controlled chance to inform the final result.
Through Shi Qing’s early interest in the subconscious – from narratives like legends and fairy tales – he has developed a symbolic and ritualistic style as a resistance strategy to what he sees as the ‘vulgarisation’ of sociological questions and the poverty of experience within current conceptual art practice. Shi increasingly turns towards experimentation as the means of production, as well as research into the issues surrounding the creation of social spaces. In his practice, he developed a method whereby each exhibition is treated as a site-specific project, determined by a new set of conditions. This approach allows him to resist any political and aesthetic boundaries that he feel are frequently imposed by a globalized, contemporary art system.
Shi Qing’s work is created within a framework which enables him to identify a series of interconnected subjects, from Socialist architecture and environments, geology, botany, weather patterns to art and its communities. The work often brings together pre-fabricated objects such as wood beams, cardboard boxes, Styrofoam, plaster, metal structures and potted plants. These objects do not function as vessels for particular material aesthetics, but, at most, serving as the impetus for conveying ideas. Unsettled demonstrates Shi’s practice is constantly evolving, yet at the same time the radically different works in the exhibition retain a consistent, core methodology.
