'Stock market' landscapes
By Wang Jie |
May 3, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE economic landscape is rocky and few artists capture it better than internationally known artist Shen Fan who uses enlarged stock market graphs that look like jagged mountains, dips and troughs.
For years, Shen has been painting and constructing landscapes and his latest work at ShanghART H-Space in M50, the artist's hub, features three very large installations.
Two pieces use mixed media, such as stones, thread, concrete and steel. Another features oil paintings on canvas.
His latest landscape period dates from 2008 when he presented a neon light installation titled "Landscape - The Readable" at Artissima. It was comprised of three stock index curves. That got him thinking and developed into a landscape series.
Since 2011, the artist has collected the most significant "development benchmarks" of China during the past 19 years: the curves of Shanghai Stock Exchange composite index. He takes them from the Internet and reproduces them as installation and on canvas.
Shanghai Stock Exchange introduced the composite index in 1992. The artist collected the index statistics of each day, week, month and year and used them as a basis for his landscape series.
In the eyes of the artist, his numerical landscape epitomizes a kind of spiritual landscape that is controlled and distorted by materialism.
"It not only symbolizes a nation but also the development of individuals," Shen says. "These abstract lines also set a criteria in measuring the individual's success (as test scores) and the world seems to be determined by a couple of simple lines and a handful of powerful men. But in the end, all that's left is only statistics and transaction records."
Date: Through May 15, 10am-6pm
Address: Bldg 18, 50 Moganshan Rd
Tel: 6276-3275
For years, Shen has been painting and constructing landscapes and his latest work at ShanghART H-Space in M50, the artist's hub, features three very large installations.
Two pieces use mixed media, such as stones, thread, concrete and steel. Another features oil paintings on canvas.
His latest landscape period dates from 2008 when he presented a neon light installation titled "Landscape - The Readable" at Artissima. It was comprised of three stock index curves. That got him thinking and developed into a landscape series.
Since 2011, the artist has collected the most significant "development benchmarks" of China during the past 19 years: the curves of Shanghai Stock Exchange composite index. He takes them from the Internet and reproduces them as installation and on canvas.
Shanghai Stock Exchange introduced the composite index in 1992. The artist collected the index statistics of each day, week, month and year and used them as a basis for his landscape series.
In the eyes of the artist, his numerical landscape epitomizes a kind of spiritual landscape that is controlled and distorted by materialism.
"It not only symbolizes a nation but also the development of individuals," Shen says. "These abstract lines also set a criteria in measuring the individual's success (as test scores) and the world seems to be determined by a couple of simple lines and a handful of powerful men. But in the end, all that's left is only statistics and transaction records."
Date: Through May 15, 10am-6pm
Address: Bldg 18, 50 Moganshan Rd
Tel: 6276-3275
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