Artist's 'Great Voyage' throws down sea legs challenge
“The Grand Voyage: The Seventh Prophecy,” currently underway at ShanghART, throws down a challenge to visitors.
ShanghART has spared first and second exhibition halls for the exhibition, a rare treat for any unknown young artist.
“The Grand Voyage” is a long-term creative project launched by Guo Xi and Zhang Jianling and supported by the Imagination Lab in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. This time, “The Seventh Prophecy” features works created by Guo.
Born in 1988 in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, Guo graduated from the new media department at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 2010. He then furthered his study as an artist-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, for two years. In 2015, he obtained a master’s degree at the New York University, Greenwich.
In the exhibition, Guo attempts to ponder the relationship among dimensions, artificial intelligence, history and social issues.
Upon entering the exhibition hall on the first floor, visitors are greeted with a cluster of bizarre sculptures, ship rails and light installations on the wall.
Guo’s sculptures, made of foam, are “a result of three-dimensional prints for two-dimensional objects in my photos, captured from my journey on the sea,” he said.
“When an object is so far away from the stretch of your eyes, it becomes two-dimensional, just as we gaze into a starry night sky,” Guo explained.
The ship rails in the exhibition hall also relate to the artist’s experience at sea.
“When I was on the ship, I found that many passengers leaning on the rails to view the landscape in the distance. Don’t you think the posture is quite interesting?” he said.
The light installation in this work is very symbolic. The round shape not only represents the shape of a planet, but also the shape of a person’s eyeballs.
“Is eyesight a beam of light? No, but it could be mirrored,” Guo said.
The three video screens on the second floor are all involved with one character, Charles, who lives and works as an architect in Hong Kong. His left eye was badly hurt at an exhibition opening. So the biochemical eye and artificial intelligence are some of the issues the artist tries to discuss in this video.
Exhibition details
Date: Through March 13, 10am-7pm
Venue: ShanghART
Address: 2555-10 Longteng Ave