Solo Exhibition Boxes Art Museum, Guangdong, Shunfeng Mountain Wetland Park，Shunde District, Foshan City
The OCT Boxes Art Museum will present a ( ) bird be released from the top of a certain tower, a solo exhibition by contemporary artist Shi Yong, on September 29, 2018. This exhibition continues the clues of the artist's solo show Under the Rule, which was held at ShanghART Gallery in 2017. This time, Shi Yong created five mixed media installations as a detective novel. They will be presented with two major works in the stage of "Illusionary Reality" (2002-2010) and some works in Let All Potential be Internally Resolved using Beautiful Form, 2015. If Shi Yong made use of the objects in Under the Rule as metaphors to convey the helplessness of individuals who may lose control of their own bodies in the real environment, a ( ) bird be released from the top of a certain tower combines metaphor with reality- the two texts are intertwined to present the artist's active attitude towards reality. The title of the exhibition comes from Borges' short story The Lottery in Babylon (La lotería en Babilonia). In this novel, an institution called “Lottery” established the rules for drawing lots, which made the entire Babylonian people got caught within it: some lots determine the major issues, as life or death, while others have no clear purposes. “A bird be released from the top of a certain tower” is exactly one of those lots which has no clear purpose in the story. Shi Yong cited this statement and deliberately added a “( )” in between “a bird”, which made a seemingly insignificant lottery, a likely ordinary incident to be a thrilled suspension because of the questions of identity and state to be roused by the “( )”. As a prefix, “( )” switches the audiences’ focus of the bird from a releasing gesture to the ambiguously pre-releasing state. The exhibition will be opened to the public from September 30 to December 9, 2018.
About the artist
Shi Yong was born in Shanghai in 1963. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Shanghai Light Industrial School in 1984. He now resides and works in Shanghai. As one of the earliest figures in China engaging in installation and video media, Shi Yong has been exhibited widely since 1993. His creative mediums include installation, behavior, photography and video. Shi Yong's early works were devoted to revealing the ambiguity of reality and the tension within the system. At the end of the 1990s, he began to discuss the concept of transformation in contemporary Shanghai under the legend of China's reform and opening up, and then led to more macroscopic levels of globalization, consumer culture and so on. In 2006, starting from the work Sorry, There Will Be No Documenta in 2007, Shi Yong’s questioning ultimately falls on the art world itself, thinking about how to convey a more rational attitude in creation. His solo exhibition in 2015, Let All Potential be Internally Resolved using Beautiful Form, is not only a continuation of previous creations, also conveys his future intention’s reflection and practice of “control” under the superficial “abstract”.
About the curator
Sun Qidong now works as a curator for Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum. He is involved in multiple activities in which he questions the relation between art and the economy. His researches focus on the creation of contemporary art, curatorial practice. As a curator, he has just organized Continuous Terminus, Shi Yong: Under the rule, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot: Sonsara, Secret Garden: Nathalie Djurberg& Hans Berg, Do you wanna play with me and Non-figurative. In addition, he has participated in initiating the art project Invisible Elephant, as well as in publishing theoretical journal ZAZA.
About the museum
Boxes Art Museum at Overseas Chinese Town (OCT) is a non-profit public benefit organization built and financed by the OCT Group, operated and managed by The Oil Painting Department Curatorial Group of GAFA (Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts). The Museum has a total area of 1,420 square meters and exhibition space of 507 square meters, including four standard indoor exhibition venues. Around the building, there is a wetland park with an area of about 1.15 million square meters. It is an outdoor public exhibition space for the museum, mainly displaying public art and sculptures. Fan Bo is the curator of Boxes Art Museum, Zhou Li is the art director, and Liu Ke is the executive curator. The museum was formerly opened on September 28, 2017.
Opening
15:30, Sep. 29, 15:30
Exhibition
September 29, 2018 — December 9, 2018
Tuesday to Friday 10:00 — 18:00 Saturday|Sunday 10:00 — 20:00
Location
Boxes Art Museum, Shun Fengshan Park(south gate), Shunde district, Foshan
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