The exhibition will be a comprehensively retrospective of the artist’s works from various periods of his career as well as exhibiting new works. This exhibition will also be the first public show of his 2013 series Deja vu since Hong Hao’s solo exhibition As It Is in 2011. Hong Hao questions and criticizes the survival in reality in his unique satire and parody style, and he also discusses aesthetics by using a highly representative language, which is based on his talent of using various media and his creational methods with oriental origins.
The new series Deja vu extends from Hong Hao’s previous concept of making art by scanning, which preserves the original shape of the material. After procedures such as collecting, limning, scanning and painting after print, Hong Hao’s artwork breaks the traditional rules of production and techniques, and also passes the boundary of media. Besides, after removing from the functional and commercial impact which comes from public opinions in a logic way, his artwork returns to the thinking of pure aesthetics, and blur the physical form of certain objects but focus on the archetype. Hong Hao’s work shows both the spatial relationship between different objects after dematerialization and the artist’s will, which returns to the very early stage that is pure and simple after experiencing the reality, but obtaining more wisdom than the very beginning that is refined from the experience. In addition, videos will also be included in the exhibition. One of the videos, Taichi, is the recording of the process that the artist practices Taichi every day. From different perspective, it get the awareness of the relationship between the human being and his surroundings, and through the self-reflection over survival and daily maintaining, to represent the implications of achieving the ultimate truth via invisible presence.
The exhibition will also include the past important works of Hong Hao, which reflects the featured characteristics of the artist. Hong Hao has very deep understanding of the process of experience. In his late 80s work Selected Scriptures, Hong Hao made screen printing in the form of antique books. He rearranged the existing territory of different nations by containing languages and marks of social consuming as well as public commercial media to eliminate the clash between different cultures and merge the worldwide culture and history. The series of Elegant Gathering in 2007 is the irony representation of the public place where audience tends to talk with others instead of appreciating art. The artwork also shows that the artist imposes his bold humor onto the ruthless analysis of the art world, especially the position of an individual in a self-inferential and narcissistic world.
Hong Hao used to study history and antique books in the 1990s. From 1997, he began taking photographs that are irony and self-reflecting. From 2001, he started to make the series of My Things. Hong Hao displayed his objects after scanning to show his living situation through daily consuming. He has discovered a universal space among arrangement, transformation and repentance when displaying his objects. The arrangement is a very complex combination that enforces the impression of the survival and rhythm of life in the reality, and transforms the living situation and the desire of consuming in contemporary China into graphics. In his 2008 series Bottom, Hong Hao scanned his objects in various angles. Therefore, the final look of this series is following the natural trend rather than in a pre-set situation. Besides, Hong Hao collected many red header documents and food tickets for his work, and by making comment in a few words to explain the sense of authority among hierarchy in Chinese cultural context to show the relationship of humanity in people’s daily life.
Image: © Hong Hao, Pace Gallery
