Abuse

30 September - 20 October 2013

Installation Views

Overview

Moderation is considered as one of the moral obligations from the traditional values. However, it seems less and less important in the fast developing and changing society. Abuse, as the opposite side of the traditional value, brings along actions and concepts as subversion. The world is more and more diversified, with different values mixing but not in harmony. Abuse versus moderation is a set of paradox. Through the group exhibition at Don Gallery, seven young artists, Hu Zi, Liu Ren, Su Chang, Yansha Zi’an, ZAKA, Zhang Ruyi and Zhang Yunyao, present their rethinks regarding the values and unrestrained development nowadays.

No matter abuse or moderation, there can be various ways of representations. Liu Ren’s works focus on surpassing oneself. Usain Bolt,the men’s 100 meters world records holder, and Bruce Lee, the founder of Jeet Kune Do, are the prototypes.

Another celebrity, Edie Sedgwick, the muse of the artist Andy Warhol, is the source of inspiration for Hu Zi. The face, bill, and hemp, all these reflect the inner world of the female star who died at her 28 due to drugs abuse. Beautiful and sick, symbols from the 1960s could still enlighten today’s world.

In ZAKA’s mind, the endless pursuit and consumption of desires are the reasons that people deviate from the origins. His works deliver such a concept that the moderation is not only to control the desire but to eliminate the strain. Because he believes that the moderation but not the opposite is the way to happiness.

Zhang Yunyao uses the contour and texture, the two basic painting elements, to construct his new works. The costume is the carrier to present the contour. The human contour is used to present the costume contour on felt, however, without the exact human body to wear the costume, it is only to show the structure of the costume itself. The contour and texture are purer expressions of the moderation.

Yansha Zi’an considers the crowd as the connection of the society and individuals. Various kinds of crowds in different relationships and activities represent different social phenomena and problems. He describes gathering vs dispersal, and dynamics vs statics in daily life.

Both the paintings and installation works by Zhang Ruyi express the reflection and transition from daily life experience to consciousness in the industrial age. The presentation of repeat, rationality, exactness and disciplines that exist in the transition process, is also the process of approaching moderation. Self-consciousness is enhanced to show the moderation spirit between individuals and realities, which delivers the individual moods empowered by this era.

Su Chang thinks the city has its own appearances and characteristics, and only when you are in it, you can feel the signs left by the city’s development. If there is a harmony, it should be between the city and the human. His works describe the images that how people exist in the city’s landscapes that created by themselves. Though the fast development is exciting, how it could last longer and how it could be more appropriate are issues on the other side.

This mid-autumn, rethink in the art, and seek the dialectics in the contradiction.

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Works