Super Natural Exhibition

Li Shan's silicon sculptures of human figures merged with the head and wings of dragonflies adorn the main space of the Super Natural exhibition at the White Rabbit Gallery. 

Titled 'Deviation 2017' Li Shan is commenting on the destructive nature of humans and exploring ideas about 'new and better life forms'.

Ocean of Cloth Wheels + Floating Islands, 2013-16 by Yang Wei-Lin are cotton cloth, indigo dye, ramie thread, paperclips and blank optical disks gracefully string around a white room.

It was my favourite installation in the exhibition.

The disks and threads moved gently with the air con creating a wave like motion that was peaceful and calming.

I'm often fascinated by the artistic intent behind seemingly simple, elegant pieces of art.

The bio accompanying He Sen's two oil paintings gave me lots of food for thought.

"He Sen transitioned to a painterly examination of Chinese history and culture. He sourced imagery from Chinese literary and artistic history, appropriating classical paintings by ink masters such as Li Shan, Ma Yuan, and Xu Wei. Reproducing elements of iconic Chinese works in oil paint rather than ink, and embedding western painting conventions into the iconography of ‘gong bi’realism and ink painting, He Sen turned from a focus on the impact of society on the individual to an examination of Chinese culture more broadly."

"He Sen began to question the distinctions between eastern and western aesthetics, and to consider ways to bridge these seemingly opposed visual languages. Aware that these works will be ‘read’ and interpreted differently by Chinese and western audiences, and conscious of the complex history of ‘guohua’ (literally, ‘national painting’ — and generally understood to refer to ink painting), He Sen considers the relationship between painting and cultural identity."

Lotus leaf + Flower 2013 and Lake Rockery 2012 by He Sen

 This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.

Ritual Spirit: White Rabbit Gallery

I'm a little late posting this, Ritual Spirit is now finished at the White Rabbit Gallery as they prepare for their next exhibit. But I find their exhibitions so stimulating and interesting that I want to keep a record of what I see (and how I see it).

A trip to the White Rabbit Gallery is not complete without 

1. a walk through the new Central Park development and

2. a leisurely dumpling and green tea afterwards in the attached cafe

Nonexistence (2009) by Jun T Lai

This work was inspired by a verse of the Buddhist Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” 

Swinging a hammer with all her might, the artist transformed a 150-kg sheet of steel into a pockmarked moonscape; a video of the process accompanies the work. Her battered “mirror” dissolves everything reflected in its surface into a shimmer of colour and light that shifts as the viewer moves. “I wanted to express the flow between real and unreal,” she says. 

The dents made by the hammer evoke the wounds life inflicts on our bodies and souls; the distorted reflections are a reminder of the unreliability of appearances. Reality vanishes as we pursue it; the only thing certain is change.

(all author bio blurbs are from the White Rabbit website)

Geng Xue, Mr Sea (2014)

Geng Xue is not content with making realistic sculptures; she wants them to live. 

In Mr Sea, exquisite porcelain puppets and scenery revitalise a 17th-century Chinese ghost story in which a scholar seeking peace on a remote island meets a beautiful woman who turns out to be a sea monster.

Xu Zhen, Play 201301 (2013)

A Cathedral constructed from the spikes, belts, whips and shackles of sadomasochistic "play". 

It's a two-faced metaphor in black: Christianity, the artists suggests, is a form of bondage, and religious exaltation has overtones of erotic pleasure. By linking them, he raises some dark questions. Does relentless self-indulgence harden us to joy? Can the cult of sexual pleasure satisfy our souls?

  

Tianzhou Chen, OM (2016)

One of the things I loved about OM was how it was reflected in the nearby ceramics, so that the man with the fancy moustache, had the word MO lit up in red, depending on where I stood.

Tianzhuo Chen, Marble Painting 4 (2016)

Luxury Logico, Scripting (2011)

Luxury Logico consists of the Chang twins and two friends, who pool their diverse skills—in mechanics, computing, music, theatre design, lighting and photography—and often enlist further help for specific works. They liken their group to a Transformer, a playful entity whose shape can be changed with a few folds and twists. 

Scripting uses intricately choreographed lights to paint in darkness—a hypnotically moving echo of traditional Chinese calligraphy generated by a computer script.

I loved this piece.

It was like watching piano keys come to life.

The light rods danced and moved in time to the music.
It was mesmerising.

I can't wait to see what the White Rabbit Gallery

pulls out of it's hat next!

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.

The Dark Matters, White Rabbit Gallery

The White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale is fast becoming one of my favourite haunts.

Not only is there a fascinating, regularly changing exhibition of contemporary Asian art on display, but there is also a gorgeous teahouse and dumpling bar underneath it.

The most recent exhibition is titled The Dark Matters. It runs until the 30th July.

The ancient Chinese got their ink from smoky oil lamps, brushing away deposited soot and mixing it into a paste that hardened into “stones”. This black was pure, indelible and did not fade, and they fell in love with it. By adjusting the ink’s dilution and the density of their brushstrokes, painters could create a multitude of shades, from deepest blue-black to palest dove grey. Black had always been the colour of mystery, night, the void. The better the artists got to know black ink, the more superficial, even gaudy, colour seemed. As the Daoist philosopher Laozi declared: “Colours cause the eye to go blind.” 

Black—utterly simple yet infinitely subtle—allowed one to see the truth.
Chinese artists no longer live in a simple, natural, orderly world. They get their blacks not just from ink stones but from printer cartridges, spray cans, propane torches, X-ray film, newsprint, polyester, computer bits and steel. And they use blacks to convey realities the classical masters never dreamed of: oil spills, air pollution, megacities, mass production and political machinations. The artists in this show don’t shun light or colour, but in using them they follow Laozi’s advice: “Know the white, but hold to the black.” Containing more than ever, the dark also conceals more than ever. And it matters more than ever that we see.

Grinding 2013-16 by Shangrao, Jiangxi.

'The neatly arrayed shapes speak of isolation, anger, pointless rules and grinding toil....For all its hard edges and barbaric spikes, his meaningless anti-landscape has an air of harmony and calm.'

I had a lovely chat with the young attendant on duty in this room about how our modern phones have turned us all into artists. So many of the viewers (including myself) were searching for the right angle, the best light and shadow and the most harmonious composition. 

Art inspiring art!

Water Drops 2014 by Kung Wen-Yi and Ko Yu-Cheng

Billennium Waves 2015 (video) by Tang Nannan

Infinite Landscape 2011 by Yang Yongliang

'The ancients used landscape to convey feeling,' 

'I use landscape to criticise society.'

AIP-PF 2004 by Chang Nai-Wen

Crystal City 007, 2015 by Wu Chi-Tsung.

His crystal city is a phantom landscape of transparent skyscrapers whose reflections, refractions and shadows create a constantly changing 3-dimensional pattern under the moving light.

'I feel like our civilisation has created a new, invisible world. We can't see it, but we all live in it.'

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.

White Rabbit Gallery

I've been meaning to visit The White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale for years, but it was spotting a friends post on Instagram from the Vile Bodies exhibition that prompted me to finally go.

I'm not sure I can say exactly why the mass hanging of nude male figures was the prompt I needed except perhaps I was feeling in need of being challenged.

Zhang Dali's, Chinese Offspring is challenging to all your senses whichever way you look at it.

And there's plenty of viewing options - it fills the air space in the main entrance foyer and it can be seen from each level of the staircase.

Cheng Dapeng's Wonderful City was an amazing collection of body parts and hybrid creations artfully displayed on a 9.6m long lightbox. The mutant forms were strangely appealing.

Yang Xin's, Original 5 mixes organic and inorganic pigments to "produce multicoloured blobs that resemble living cells".

Xu  Xinping's clasped hands were a calming feature in this rather startling exhibition.

"Gigantic clasped hands, rendered in white chalk pastel on red paper in twelve separate panels, loom out of the black charcoal background, like a monumental sculpture. Is this a gesture of prayer, of supplication, or of patient resignation?"

Exotic Flowers and Rare Herbs Series by Cang Xin features a "menagerie of invented, hybrid life forms, with luxuriant plants growing from the bodies of creatures including porcupines, cockroaches and scorpions."

The Gallery also contains a Tea House - the bird cage ceiling display, whilst sipping one's green tea, was far more relaxing and rustic than the exhibition.

Vile Bodies was surprising, bizarre and confronting at times.

I'll be curious to see what turns up in the space next year.

"The White Rabbit Collection is one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of contemporary Chinese art. Founded by Kerr and Judith Neilson, it focuses on works produced after 2000."

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.