After the 144-day "14th Shanghai Biennale" came to an end, the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art recently launched the largest solo exhibition project of Chinese artist Hu Xiangcheng in recent years - "Tiantianwen".
Why is it named "Tian Tian Wen"? Hu Xiangcheng said, "Everyone knows Qu Yuan's "Tian Wen". He asked questions to the sky. I will add the word "Tian", asking every day, asking everything, which means asking various questions about the present and the future. All kinds of imagination."
The title of the exhibition "Everyday Questions" also comes from the artist's personal exploration of what is the truth of the world. Hu Xiangcheng was born in Shanghai in 1950. He has been observing insects and ants since he was a child. "Curiosity" has been the driving force for him to understand and experience the world, prompting him to seek questions and answers about everything, and thus generate endless imagination.
This exhibition selects the artist's paintings, videos, sculptures and materials from various stages from the 1970s to the present, and also presents a number of new large-scale installations he realized based on the history of psa architecture and specific spaces.
"Our understanding of the world is always limited." Just like the installation of the same name "Everyday Questions", Hu Xiangcheng juxtaposes 365 production and living items using natural materials from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, in this hand-operated mechanical device. After the rotation, the familiar yet unfamiliar sounds that are improvised from the percussion of objects and human voices point to the questions that humans have about everything every day.
"View of Mountains and Seas" is also a very special work. In 1973, Hu Xiangcheng entered the Shanghai Theater Academy to study. After graduation, he stayed at the school to teach, and was assigned by the school to teach in Tibet. His experience in Tibet during those years had a great impact on him. "Grand View of Mountains and Seas" is a work completed by him and his Tibetan students. The 11 authors chose different materials: acrylic paint, crushed powder of building materials, ores for Tibetan thangka special pigments, etc. Under the thick paint, they each buried a secret of their own: perhaps a small painting, a precious object, sand and gravel, or even a drop of water, a breath... "We are under the same starry sky, and we also have the same secret. A subtle connection," Hu Xiangcheng said.
During the 10 years he stayed at the school to teach, Hu Xiangcheng also trained Cai Guoqiang and other world-renowned contemporary artists. On display at the exhibition is a piece of work "Mind Image" that Hu Xiangcheng and Cai Guoqiang completed in 1985.
Hu Xiangcheng's experience in Tibet made him deeply moved, so he also painted many symbols, "We buried the 'rope' representing time under the oil paint, emphasizing that time will rush through some social phenomena from the time we tie ropes to remember things. , Cai Guoqiang went to Fujian and fired pottery basins, which represented that the power of fire had unpredictable and unexpected effects."
The exhibition also presents a number of immersive installation masterpieces created by artists based on the history of the Shanghai Power Station of Art. For example, in the work "Spiral Pattern", an abandoned conveyor belt carrying coal is delivered to the exhibition hall. On the conveyor belt, people and animals shuttle between the spiral structures that symbolize the energy of the universe.
"Shanghai Power Station of Art has a characteristic. It is an art museum that is constantly generated in a dynamic way." Therefore, Hu Xiangcheng set up a studio at the exhibition site for live communication with the audience. "I hope that through this exhibition, Let art become a 'field' that connects people in society and various fields. A very important thing about art is experimentation, and the source of experimentation is curiosity. When you don't understand, you will 'ask every day'. There will be some whimsical sparks. "
This exhibition is the continuation of the "Chinese Contemporary Art Collection Series" at the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. Focusing on the case of this artist who was born in Shanghai and has traveled around the world and among the people, the exhibition hopes to provide a deeper thinking about Chinese contemporary art and open up more possible dialogues. The
exhibition will be on view for free until June 9th.
Author:
Editor: Zhou Chen Editor: Wang Jiayi
Source: Shanghai Huangpu
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