"Investigation no. 2: Facing Distance" is the second of a series of exhibitions organised by ifa gallery at ART PARIS. This second section requires certain proximity, an express physical distance from which to observe the artworks, and a key mental distance to identify the content.
The visual performances encourage a dialogue dealing with the "other side"; the side we do not see.
Fan Jiupeng, former student of China’s main expressionist artist Liu Xiaodong, has formed his own unique language, playing with the form and idea of creating double- sided works in oil or on tracing paper. He effectively creates a system whereby the painting is to be viewed from both sides, and where each figure is painted from the front and back. He plays with the ambivalence of the individual and the dual personalities that we live by. “It seems in my conscious that I’m fascinated by art works whose contents pose potential contradiction and conflict”, says Fan Jiupeng
Liu Rui, graduate of the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou and Universität der Künste in Berlin, paints characters inside glass using a mirror technique which references the Chinese naiveté realism of miniature within glass paintings. Li Rui, with her young spirit, takes a more social anthropological approach by pulling the “masks” off people, unveiling their social constraints, and revealing what lurks behind their superficial needs and ideals.
Pham Ngoc Duong, from Hanoi in Vietnam, evokes the family unit and Confucian heritage through his work. The compression of individuals in cubic form is proposed in the new “Gold Family” series, in which the artist wishes to address the different forms that are within each of us. He also questions how a body compressed and enclosed in confined spaces may evolve and grow... Different interpretations may be attributed to this oeuvre, notably themes of lack of independence and autonomy.
Wu Junyong, graduate artist of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, is renowned for his video animations constructed using sculptures and cut outs. His focus is exploring public conscience, depicting the creation and destruction of virtues before, during, and after the foundation of the People's Republic of China. Although the Cultural Revolution has long ago ended, many still live mentally within it, and Wu enters into the confused minds of the masses who act as though they were watching life through a kaleidoscope, searching to find a path and guided by blind people.
Liu Bolin, graduated from the China Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, and known for his camouflage series “hide in the city”, presents here his new series of photography performance, “shadow”. The artworks trace movements in time. “It” happened before; “It” is not there anymore; but for some people this “It” exists, and it is a very present part of their lives. Events in history that took place in a particular
ifagallery location get washed away, hidden or simply forgotten, but they did happen. Tiananmen square? A woman on a chair? A train to Wenzhou? An apple on a plate?
The Gao Brothers, born in Jinan, explore public news and public problems, utilizing subversive references which many artists dare not approach. Along with many others, they suffered during the Cultural Revolution: an imprisoned father murdered, and a subsequent reclusive life with four other brothers living with their mother in one room. Their irreverent art runs the gauntlet between taking responsibility and expressing puerile behavior.
Dai Guangyu, artist-autodidact born in 1955, since the end of the 80's has become the mentor of the new wave of the avant-garde of Sichuan Province and Southwest China. Through performance art and ephemeral installations, he has often revisited traditional Chinese art, as in this new series of works which is a re- creation of the Chinese aesthetic of beauty as a virtue, an aesthetic diminished over the course of years.
Zane Mellupe, a Latvian artist living and working in Shanghai, has an extensive background in photography. Her works have undergone diverse development from documentary photography, found images, self-observation, photo and video integration to gallery installations. Her childhood and adolescence experiences aid her well in understanding China and its values within a socialist environment. Her most recent mixed-media works are focused on merging abstract concepts with physical objects accompanied by surreal short stories.
According to Taoism, dualism is the nature of everything: the organism, the characteristic of objects, opinions, as well as abstract concepts. Every “element” includes the other. In order for “the real” to be recognised, “the real” should contain “the unreal”; in order for “the unreal” to exist, it should contain “the real”.
The physical and narrative nature of the artworks shown in this exhibition evokes connections to and between “the other side”, “the opposite side”, “the inside”, “the back side”, and “the non-functional side”.
Zane Mellupe, Marie Terrieux & Alexis Kouzmine-Karavaïeff (Shanghai, Beijing 2009-2012)
www.ifa-gallery.com/exhibitions/artparis12
