Very Natural Actions

The value, social function, and role of art change with time. Contemporary art has shifted towards life itself, away from “art for art’s sake”, where art is viewed in isolation as objects of pure aesthetic inquiry. Artists are thrust into the world and in turn create their own worlds; the persistent focus on the surfaces of artworks breaks down, unveiling deeper meanings.

Very Natural Actions encourages viewers not to linger on the surfaces of works but to seek out that gem of a tree within the forest of forms and meanings—one that resonates with one’s experiences, allowing artworks to serve as bridges between artists and viewers. Beneath the artworks lie worlds and dimensions ordinarily hidden; such reflexive questioning holds out greater possibilities in the viewing of artworks.

Very Natural Actions extends the artistic discussions in A Tree Fell in the Forest, and No One’s There last year, presented as part of the “Emerging Curators Project” at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, parallel to the Shanghai Biennale. While the previous exhibition focused on the works that formed after the artists peered out at the world, Very Natural Actions explores the relation between an art object and the practice that results in the art object, offering a cross-section of themes and impulses from these relatively younger and emerging artists from Hong Kong, the Mainland, and Taiwan.