Exhibition
25th September 2022 – 20th November 2022
Venue
SGA Three on the Bund, 3F, No.3 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road, Shanghai
Artists
Zhou Xiaohu, Geng Yini, Zhao Bo, He Xun, Tan Bide ( list according to age)
Curator
Wang Kaimei
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Space & Gallery Association (SGA) Shanghai is pleased to present Nocturnes: Five stories about us ––a group exhibition curated by independent curator Wang Kaimei. The exhibition invites 5 contemporary Chinese artists: Zhou Xiaohu, Geng Yini, Zhao Bo, He Xun and Tan Bide to reobserve the interconnections of our existence with the world in the epoch of Anthropocene. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, 24th September, from 4–6 pm.
How should one define “us”?
Over millennia, humanocentric studies have used the dichotomy between humanity and nature to crown “us” humans as the supreme life form on Earth. Often, through an introspective look into our existence, knowledge, and actions throughout the course of history, across present and future, we have become accustomed to objectifying nature as a commodity, a mere provider for our living space with inexhaustible resources to feed our rapacious needs. In addition, we have long denied that our relentless actions could contribute to the endangerment of our planet.
Two centuries ago, renowned French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon, conceived his magnum opus, The Natural History. At the heart of his thirty-six-volume encyclopaedia–– depicting everything to know about the history of the natural world, humanity, animal, and bird species–– Buffon states a bold and cutting-edge scientific hypothesis that our surrounding nature is not static. Instead, it holds its own history, just like human institutions and culture. That is to say, human action directly impacts the history of nature. This striking proposal about the natural world would mark as a footnote to what is soon referred to as Anthropocene –– human activities are the main propeller to ecological changes on Earth–– and inspire English independent scientist James Lovelock's Gaia Theory in the 1970s. Understanding that we humans, the most intelligent species are, in fact, the greatest force of destruction toward nature beckons us to refigure a mediated condition during our development, and call for more reciprocity and consideration with the “non-us”; in other words, the “non-human” beings on this shared planet.
The show invites five Chinese artists to form diverse representations of “us” in the discourse of Anthropocene.
Zhou Xiaohu reimagines space-time dimension in contemporary art through tiered/varied layers of history based on Chinese literati art. In his most recent series, Reclusion to ploughing and fishing, which alludes to our ancestors languidly wandering in nature and living in the wilderness, the artist allies the editing syntax found in modern cinematic montage with cubist-inspired deconstruction technique to achieve a sense of motion and temporality. This modern approach to restructuring time and space resonates with the emphasis on focal perspective in traditional Chinese paintings–––specifically with an interplay of brushwork, compositional variations, and thick and soothing lines–– and exudes a visual rhythm of spatial depth and elevation. Undeniably, the complexed image montage and the multi-perspective human disfiguration that appealed to film director Eisenstein and cubism painter Picasso must have fascinated Yuan Dynasty masters such as Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan and their fellow contemporaries who practiced deconstructed landscape in their paintings since the 13th century.
He Xun's work draws a connection between art and nature. Initially kept as a beekeeper's instrument, his beehive boxes are re-modelled into palette drawers for his sketching practice. Like the beekeepers in the birch forest who begin their honey harvest after a busy summer, He Xun's efforts are transposed in his paintings. Historically, the origin of art fell nearly at the same time as when our ancestors learnt to brew honey from the bees. In essence, bees and palettes, the beekeeper and the artist, honey and art, all sweetness in life converge in the cultivation of physical labour and sublimation of the spirit.
Zhao Bo's snow-glazed cedar forest emanates a chill that sweeps our imagination back to the Ice Age, a time when our 4 billion years old planet was buried in ice and snow. Reflecting upon our collective memory, the omnipresence of ice-melts and flood myths across diverse cultures and civilisations has always underscored nature's reigning claim over our lives. As of today, our global climate change has already reached 2 degrees Celsius tipping point, and rapidly receding glaciers clock down to our planet's impending demise. Zhao's winter vistas lament Earth's distant past and flash a prophecy on humanity's survival in an apocalyptic future– alone in a land of icy devastation.
From the benign-looking mallards floating head-down over the nocturnal Arctic landscape, to a family of glowering jackals voguing in front of the Cézannesque Sainte-Victoire mountains, and the genetically modified creatures writhing in desire to escape from their mothers–– Geng Yini's perplexing paintings are always mingled with a playful appeal. If there ever comes one day when animals will despise and loathe us, we should ask ourselves: what have we done for our fellow non-humans who share this planet with us? Triggered by the displacement of animals' living environment, Geng offers her canvas as a sanctuary for humankind so that we, too, may have a place in the world.
Finally, what about us? Bearing the most complicated human emotion, the expression of love, Tan Bide’s work evokes the frailness of our emotional connections in the age of consumerism with visual limpidity and zeal reminiscent of movie posters and calendar girls. His chapter preludes with a heartfelt airmail letter addressed to an anonymous receiver, followed by bikini-women and automobiles that satiate our fantasies of wealth; sentiments about a countryside romance in the backseat of a vintage bicycle; and the blazing youth hood of a roving biker (a reference to the 1969 film Easy Rider). Tan’s nostalgia is a spinning ball whirled downward into a vortex of human emotions, heading straight into uncertainty–––like the future of Earth. How will humanity continue to thrive on this planet if not by the power of love?
Nocturnes: Five Stories About Us derived its title from Kazuo Ishiguro's first collection of short stories: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. The Japanese British author threads the fate of five music-obsessed individuals into an affective ukiyo-e display about music life––– and builds the novel into a musical experience through his lyrical serenade. Composed with the rhythms and syllables in visual aesthetics, the show conflates tradition and innovation, art and labour, landscape and consciousness, animals and humans, and the material and spiritual aspects of human emotions into a nocturne. Here, these chords and melodies of “us” interweave and meander to form the extensive network that interconnects our existence in the world.
The exhibition is on view through 20th November 2022.
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About the artists
Zhou Xiaohu
(b. 1960, Changzhou, China) Graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China. He currently resides and works in Shanghai. As one of China’s most well-known most prolific contemporary artists, he specializes in inducing confusion and bafflement, making viewers question the evidence of their senses and their assumptions about the so-called ‘facts’. He has since experimented with stop-frame video animation, video installation and computer-gaming software, whereby the interlayering of images between moving pictures and real objects has become his signature style. Working across performance, photography, installation, sculpture, video, and animation, Zhou’s practice reflects the documentation and misunderstanding of history in a digital age.
His work has been extensively showcased in international exhibitions including: the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Liverpool, UK; Kunsthalle Bonn, Switzerland; Shanghai Art Museum; International Center of Photography School, New York; and the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria; and more. In addition, Zhou Xiaohu’s animation works have been exhibited at the 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam in Netherland, and the 56th Locarno International Film Festival - Video Installation Show in Switzerland. He won the Experimental Video Gold Award in the 36th Worldfest - Houston International Film Festival; the CCAA Award (2002, 2006); and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (2014).
He Xun
(b.1984, Jiangxi, China) graduated from the Department of Education, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, in 2016. He is currently based in Hangzhou and Beijing and is a member of the JIEJUE Community. He leads a multidisciplinary practice of painting, poetry, and curation. Tuning to the symbolic roles that agriculture, theology and literacy practice play on the everyday, and the impact which neglected or suppressed languages, folk customs and totemic principles cast on our contemporary life, the artist appeals to humans' shared emotional connection, eternal memories, and its passage of deterioration.
His work is in the permanent collection of Shanghai Star Museum, Stiftung Deutsche und Chinesische Kultur, Frank F. Yang Art and Education Foundation, and more. His poems and essays have appeared in journals: "West Lake"; "Enclave"; "Poem Jiangnan"; "The Best Poems of China 2006"; "Art World"; "Artshard"; and etcetera. His curated projects include: "Go Live" with the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art; "Suture: A Collection of Poetry by Contemporary Art Practitioners" with UCCA STORE, Beijing, and more.
Zhao Bo
(b.1984, Shenyang, China) Graduated with a B.A in 2007 and an M.A in 2011 from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Oil Painting Department. During the period, Zhao also attended an exchange program with the National Academy of the Arts in Norway. He currently resides and works in Shenyang. Zhao Bo grew up in Shenyang, an ancient heavy industrialised city rich in history and culture. The artist created symbolic scenes with strong contrasts to highlight the reflection and feedback of real civilization. Under the explosion of information and environmental pollution, Zhao Bo depicts a unique sense of tragedy through his work. From the apocalyptic backdrop to wild and dazzling hues, these elements allude to the social chaos and spiritual anxiety of our modern times.
Zhao Bo’s work is in the permanent collections Aurora Art Museum, China; Chlitina, China; Taiwan ArTouch; and more.
Geng Yini
(b.1982, Shenyang China) Received a B.A degree from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Oil Painting department, in 2005; and a M.A degree in 2013. Geng currently resides and works in Shenyang.
Her work is in the permanent collection of: Uli Sigg Collection, Switzerland; White Rabbit Collection，Sydney, Australia; He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; Jolie Art Museum, Shenyang, China; Beijing Times Museum, Beijing, China; and Blue Roof Museum, Chengdu, China.
Tan Bide
(b.1988, Nanjing, China) Graduated with a B.A. and an M.A. degree from the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, Italy. He currently resides and works in Beijing.
Tan has participated in the X Premio Nazionale delle Arti at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bari Italy in 2013; and the Premio Internazionale lìmen Arte, Vibo Valentia Italy in 2014, and was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize (China) for his painting 8.15, in 2020.
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Gallery
Click here to download our exhibition catalogue.