艺术家｜Artist
黄芳翎 HUANG Fangling
群展｜不眠的剧场
Group Exhibition｜The Sleepless Theatre
策展人｜Curator
姜节泓 JIANG Jiehong
上海吴昌硕纪念馆, 上海 中国
Shanghai Wu Changshuo Memorial Hall
Shanghai China
2023/10/29 – 2024/01/28
Don Gallery is pleased to announce the participation of artist HUANG Fangling in the exhibition The Sleepless Theatre at the Wu Changshuo Memorial Hall in Shanghai. The exhibition was curated by Professor JIANG Jiehong, Director of the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) at Birmingham City University, as part of the 22nd China Shanghai International Art Festival.
The exhibition explores the threefold meaning of "theatre". Firstly, it alludes to the Wu Changshuo Memorial Hall's historical heritage building itself, with its exquisitely carved wooden interiors as a frozen drama. Secondly, the Lujiazui Financial Centre in Pudong, where the building is located, is regarded as a modern urban "theatre" that has witnessed China's revolutionary urbanisation process and presents a dialogue between the ancient and the modern, the dynamic and the static. Thirdly, the city of Shanghai is seen as a world theatre, a plural city with a diversity of cultures and aspirations. Eight artists who investigate urban transformation in depth and respond in various mediums to architectural and urban surroundings are brought together in this exhibition, representing Old Shanghai, New Shanghai, and international artists. Through their distinct perspectives, these artists are both insiders and outsiders, hosts and guests, using art as a window to explore and understand the evolution of cities in China, Asia and the world.
HUANG Fangling's work The Shanghai Seasons is a unique performance art that transforms the daily life of Shanghainese people in the seasons into a dramatic performance, releasing the emotional experience of Shanghainese people's sensitive perception of climate change. The work unfolds in nine special locations in the space of Wu Changshuo Memorial Hall, where performers dressed in white pyjamas "live" in nine different scenes set in the presumed seasons of summer, autumn and winter. They are playfully blowing soap bubbles, yelling or moving, happy or depressed, and occasionally just walking around and murmuring to themselves. All of these vivid actions weave a succession of vividly in the particular scenarios. In a given scenario, these vibrant behaviours blend to create a complex series of images that create a dynamic and varied theatre.
