A history in art of a vanishing community
Print Edition
Memories, documents, old photos, fragments of furniture, broken windows, doors and floors, and even a tree branch from the yard 鈥 Nothing is a waste in the hands of artist Wang Haichuan.
In his solo exhibition 鈥淩iffling Through History鈥 at the Art+ Shanghai Gallery along Suzhou Creek in the downtown Bund area, visitors get to see 12 new canvas paintings as well as his earlier sculpture series, as a review and a re-organization of his general artistic style.
鈥淭he inspiration comes from my research and traveling experience over the past decades,鈥 said Wang. 鈥淣one of these works were finished in one setting. It is always a bit of here then, and a bit of there later.鈥
鈥淪cenery (2021),鈥 which features building structures of a collective neighborhood in the Tongyuanju area in Chongqing in 2009, was completed right before the painting was about to be sent to Shanghai weeks ago. With the last few strokes in green, black and white blocking most part of the original housing units, there is an effect of how weathering and erosion occur over time.
The site of a copper coin factor in 1905, and later the bullet workshops in the 50s and 60s, the neighborhood complete with workers鈥 dormitories, schools, hospitals and other facilities has witnessed the overall transformation of the area from prosperity to depression, and will soon disappear from sight with the last few families moving out in the recent urban renewal.
鈥淪ixteen-point-nine square meters is the standard area of a staff dormitory, in which many families have been living for 60 years,鈥 said Wang, one of the initiators of the Tongyuanju art project in the community in 2006. Starting as a mapping program, it has so far produced an array of site-specific art, including Wang鈥檚 photos, paintings, installations and literary works.
鈥淎s I promised to give each of the residents a work as a memorial, I keep going back to the people and spaces of Tongyuanju over the years,鈥 said the 53-year-old, who now lives between Beijing and Chongqing.
Compared to his Tongyuanju series, his Modernism series on canvas or hard wooden surfaces is a true cabinet of curiosities, which comprises a miscellaneous collection of images with references to architecture, art, history, religion, nature, and all things that catch the artist鈥檚 attention from a global perspective.
Collage is the way he works, which denies any explanation. There is a Campbell鈥檚 soup can, a pale nude woman over a coconut tree, a vehicle reminiscent of early flying machines, a traditionally stylized Chinese dragon, a pair of circus performers, and a gondola crossing a canal in Venice 鈥
Each element is layered one over the other or next to each other like pieces of a puzzle 鈥 a practice which the artist said benefited from Persian miniature wall art during his artist-in-residence program in Iran in 2013.
This style has allowed him to develop an aesthetic playing with both figurative and abstract techniques, eliciting an organic response from viewers rather than dictating their impression. Just like the collective memory of Tongyuanju, Wang鈥檚 works offer no definitive testimony, but a new approach to understanding the world.
Dates: Through July 18 (Closed on Mondays), 10:30am-6:30pm
Venue: Art+ Shanghai Gallery
Address: 191 Nansuzhou Rd
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
