Following the successful execution of Fold I: Unifying Art and Design, Art+ Shanghai Gallery expands its exhibition scope with Fold II,agroup show exploring the parameters of art, design and sustainability.
Fold is an annual project conceived in the spring of May 2009 to promote experimental crossover by inviting artists, designers and architects to collectively design works produced and exhibited in a gallery. The exhibition aims to explore the intricacies of art and design as a partnership on every level, from the initial sharing of ideas to negotiating changes and making decisions about possible outcomes. It is as much to showcase the creative outcome of two or more disciplines, as it is to explore the fundamentals of collaboration. Drawing on the expertise, ideas and experience of two genres aims to improve the creative potential for more innovative art and design.
In the inaugural year of FOLD l we invited Shanghai based architect Zhang Xi to collaborate with four gallery artists. Each artist approached his/her design around the conceptual theme in a previous body of work. Physical appropriations of artists’ works generated conceptual furniture and at times improvements to commonplace commodities, such as notebooks and lanterns. In our second year, under the general theme of sustainability in design, we invited three up-and-coming artists to join seasoned and renowned designers. The artists cover mediums of painting, video and photography, while the designers are equally varied in the fields of ceramic, fashion and interior design.
The subtitle of this year’s exhibition is inspired by Aura Seikkula, a curator from Finland who launched the evening lounge event URBAN STUDIES: Interdisciplinary Perspectives to Urban Life Forms, at the NUT (Shanghai) in early 2010. The project brought together various Finnish artists to discuss and share ideas on the issues of sustainability, urban planning and development in the context of urban living. Echoing the crossover of various practitioners in Seikkula’s project, Fold II brings together artists and designers in order to examine alternative ways to tackle the question of urban sustainability through collaborative design and production of a functional art piece.
Following a similar approach as Fold l, the collaborations were initiated by the gallery and each artist was invited to work with one designer. The communication and production has proved unique in each situation.
The work of Cindy and Spin Ceramic team (Gary Wang, May Zhou and Wu LiJuan) is an equal balance between the flow of ink across Cindy’s paintings and the organic design of May and Wu’s ceramic plates at the Spin studio in Shanghai. Ink Poem aims to explore the concept of ink in motion with the flow of liquid across the ceramic sculptures, creating symmetry between the uninhibited movement of ink in Cindy’s performance and the pure and basic shape of Zhao and Wu’s designs.
Fashion and costume designer Han Feng is renowned for her use of vintage fabric to bridge traditional and contemporary Chinese style. Her collaboration with artist Shi Zhiying is an example of how two artists whose medium differ share an admiration towards Chinese literati art and design but with a global perspective. The minimalism in Shi Zhiying’s oil paintings appears at first to differ greatly from the vivid colour and texture of the fabric bird lanterns designed by Han Feng. On further reflection, however, the works created in Bird Landshare a similar feeling, between that of Zhiying’s existential landscapes and the purist impression of Han’s birds. The visible metal used to construct the bodies of the bird and transparent plastic collected from recycled milk tea containers, used to make the feathers, creates an unrefined, artificial nature, yet resonates with a natural and raw beauty.
Yang Yongliang is known widely for his photography depicting Shanghai’s changing cityscapes, which mimic traditional Chinese landscape painting. The rich detail that goes into the post-production of Yang’s work is echoed in his collaboration with interior designer Julia Liu. Early sketches by Yang show traces of icebergs surrounded by random teapots and cups. On first glance Sixty Meters Above appears as a functional coffee table with a superficial similarity to an iceberg, but upon further understanding of the couple’s original idea and production of the piece, we realize its deeper conceptual intention. The collection of recycled wood, sculpting and carving, executed by Liu and Yang along with the carpenter, was the intention of the artists to employ natural materials and local craftsmanship. Liu and Yang, likewise aim to bring the users of this functional table into a direct dialogue, on the wider issues of climate change, over a cup of tea.
The issue of art and environmentalism is a vast topic and we have only begun to scratch its surface in this show. While some artists approached the subject on a more conceptual level others reacted in by taking responsibility for the impact the materials they used have on the environment. The artworks in this show are not intended to be a sermon on sustainable living, but rather a small step in encouraging a dialogue among artists and designers, as well as viewers, on the role of environmental responsibility in relation to contemporary urban living.
- Diana Freundl, Curator & Art Director
