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'Rock' balloon new take on classical Chinese garden
By Xu Wenwen |
April 17, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN inflatable silver Taihu rock, inner vacuum bottles, telegraph poles and five-pointed stars are incorporated into large installation works by noted contemporary installation artist Guan Huaibin.
A solo exhibition of Guan's works at Sanshang Contemporary Art Gallery is causing visitors to pause and think about their meanings and what they say about contemporary society.
The exhibition opened Sunday and runs through next Tuesday.
Guan, 51, is a professor of new media in China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. He studied traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting and then studied in Japan where he received a doctoral degree in Tokyo at the National University of Arts and Music.
His works are avant-garde installation and multimedia art, but they are based on traditional Chinese spacial aesthetics. The Chinese garden is a prominent theme in the exhibition.
The exhibition is titled "Du Yuan," literally meaning crossing a garden, experiencing a garden, or measuring a garden, since the word "du" has many meanings.
The exhibition features 10 large installations, three videos, two ink paintings and several sketches of installation explaining how the works were created.
In the center of the exhibition hall, the installation "Weak Aesthetics" features a huge, 2-meter-tall balloon "rock" from Taihu Lake. The famous Taihu limestone rocks from Taihu Lake are unusual in shape, many with hollows, openings and strange projections. The rocks are a fixture in classical Chinese gardens because of their unusual shapes that suggest many things; they also figure in paintings and are objects of contemplation and appreciation.
This rock placed in the center of a hall is actually a bizarre silver balloon with openings and extensions; it constantly inflates, and then deflates. A dozen small paintings of a Taihu rock are hung on the walls.
All the paintings are pictures of the same small Taihu rock on Guan's desk in his studio, but from different perspectives and angles. The balloon is also a "replica" of the rock.
"Taihu rock is a symbol that was appreciated by Chinese literati, but sometimes people get aesthetic fatigue, just as the balloon rock inflates and gets hard, and then deflates and gets weak," explains Guan. That's just one of the work's meanings.
"Weak Aesthetics" is probably the easiest installation to understand.
Guan also uses other familiar objects, such as vacuum bottles, which were used a lot before there was abundant hot water. He uses the inner silver vacuum flask itself, not the plastic or metal exterior.
"It is a neutral object that does not have very special meaning, but is related to the memories of many Chinese, especially people in our generation, and it is also fragile, giving people a feeling of danger," Guan says.
In the installation "Well Garden," silver-colored vacuum bottles are stacked vertically to shape a cylinder, like a well, that reaches the ceiling. Hundreds of vacuum bottles are also lying around the exhibition room and on book shelves, which are part of the work.
"Crowded tanks are like crowded people, who push something, like morals and values aside even without noticing," explains Guan. "Also, some items such as vacuum bottles, are becoming less familiar and less a part of our time as society becomes more materialistic."
Another vacuum-bottle installation is a white, waxy container in which broken shards of vacuum bottles are embedded or pushed through. Photos in another hall shows how the wax hardened around the pieces.
Another symbol Guan favors a lot is a five-pointed star that was commonly used in the 20th century to represent social progress in the world.
In "Eclipse View - The Sword," Guan hangs a five-pointed star that has a pole swinging like a pendulum. Nearby, a very tall lamp post lies on floor, creating a full-moon spotlight; a tree branch is silhouetted in the "moon" spotlight.
In another work Guan takes a large industrial cement cylinder and carves it to suggest a triumphal column from ancient Rome. He also disassembles a steel telegraph pole and reworks it so that it too resembles a similar ancient column.
"The telegraph pole is a miniature memorial monument in people's daily life, and I want people to read various meanings into that," the artist says.
Installation art, compared with other art, generally requires people to think more about it meaning.
"Guan's works is magnificent and also exquisite, and visitors can sense some nostalgic meaning in his huge works," says contemporary art critic Sun Shanchun.
"It is good to see such an avant-garde exhibition in Hangzhou, which is a rare," says Matthieu Delounme, a French doctoral student in art. "All the works are speculations about modern times and push people to think, not only about the works but also the social reality."
Date: through April 25, 9am-5:30pm
Address: 52-1 Yan'an Rd S.
Tel: (0571) 8782-5633
A solo exhibition of Guan's works at Sanshang Contemporary Art Gallery is causing visitors to pause and think about their meanings and what they say about contemporary society.
The exhibition opened Sunday and runs through next Tuesday.
Guan, 51, is a professor of new media in China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. He studied traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting and then studied in Japan where he received a doctoral degree in Tokyo at the National University of Arts and Music.
His works are avant-garde installation and multimedia art, but they are based on traditional Chinese spacial aesthetics. The Chinese garden is a prominent theme in the exhibition.
The exhibition is titled "Du Yuan," literally meaning crossing a garden, experiencing a garden, or measuring a garden, since the word "du" has many meanings.
The exhibition features 10 large installations, three videos, two ink paintings and several sketches of installation explaining how the works were created.
In the center of the exhibition hall, the installation "Weak Aesthetics" features a huge, 2-meter-tall balloon "rock" from Taihu Lake. The famous Taihu limestone rocks from Taihu Lake are unusual in shape, many with hollows, openings and strange projections. The rocks are a fixture in classical Chinese gardens because of their unusual shapes that suggest many things; they also figure in paintings and are objects of contemplation and appreciation.
This rock placed in the center of a hall is actually a bizarre silver balloon with openings and extensions; it constantly inflates, and then deflates. A dozen small paintings of a Taihu rock are hung on the walls.
All the paintings are pictures of the same small Taihu rock on Guan's desk in his studio, but from different perspectives and angles. The balloon is also a "replica" of the rock.
"Taihu rock is a symbol that was appreciated by Chinese literati, but sometimes people get aesthetic fatigue, just as the balloon rock inflates and gets hard, and then deflates and gets weak," explains Guan. That's just one of the work's meanings.
"Weak Aesthetics" is probably the easiest installation to understand.
Guan also uses other familiar objects, such as vacuum bottles, which were used a lot before there was abundant hot water. He uses the inner silver vacuum flask itself, not the plastic or metal exterior.
"It is a neutral object that does not have very special meaning, but is related to the memories of many Chinese, especially people in our generation, and it is also fragile, giving people a feeling of danger," Guan says.
In the installation "Well Garden," silver-colored vacuum bottles are stacked vertically to shape a cylinder, like a well, that reaches the ceiling. Hundreds of vacuum bottles are also lying around the exhibition room and on book shelves, which are part of the work.
"Crowded tanks are like crowded people, who push something, like morals and values aside even without noticing," explains Guan. "Also, some items such as vacuum bottles, are becoming less familiar and less a part of our time as society becomes more materialistic."
Another vacuum-bottle installation is a white, waxy container in which broken shards of vacuum bottles are embedded or pushed through. Photos in another hall shows how the wax hardened around the pieces.
Another symbol Guan favors a lot is a five-pointed star that was commonly used in the 20th century to represent social progress in the world.
In "Eclipse View - The Sword," Guan hangs a five-pointed star that has a pole swinging like a pendulum. Nearby, a very tall lamp post lies on floor, creating a full-moon spotlight; a tree branch is silhouetted in the "moon" spotlight.
In another work Guan takes a large industrial cement cylinder and carves it to suggest a triumphal column from ancient Rome. He also disassembles a steel telegraph pole and reworks it so that it too resembles a similar ancient column.
"The telegraph pole is a miniature memorial monument in people's daily life, and I want people to read various meanings into that," the artist says.
Installation art, compared with other art, generally requires people to think more about it meaning.
"Guan's works is magnificent and also exquisite, and visitors can sense some nostalgic meaning in his huge works," says contemporary art critic Sun Shanchun.
"It is good to see such an avant-garde exhibition in Hangzhou, which is a rare," says Matthieu Delounme, a French doctoral student in art. "All the works are speculations about modern times and push people to think, not only about the works but also the social reality."
Date: through April 25, 9am-5:30pm
Address: 52-1 Yan'an Rd S.
Tel: (0571) 8782-5633
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