Hope and reflections highlights of unique exhibition
A duo art exhibition "Fish in the Northern Underworld" is on at Xianhe Art Gallery in Sijing Town, presenting works of crossover artist Dong Ye and painter Wang Haixia.
The exhibition's title comes from the famed article by Zhuangzi, a pivotal figure in classical philosophical Taoism in the late 4th century BC. The story goes, "In the northern dark underworld, there is a fish named Kun. Kun is so huge I don't know how many thousand miles he measures."
Through the romantic story, he advocated naturalism and freedom, insisting that people should live freely without any restrictions. This actually reflects Zhuangzi's philosophy, which transcends time and space, gets rid of the influence and restrictions of reality, forgets everything and realizes "carefree" living in fantasy.
Dong brings a set of multimedia installations "What we're losing now" made of homespun cloth, pigments, polyfoam, props and "trash" he has collected for years to get into a little girl's daydream, to look out of the window where snow-capped mountains loom, and trace prehistoric fossils.
The group of works is to remind people what they are losing at the moment, to display the broken life in disasters and wish to reconstruct the homeland.
"The painting on canvas can no longer satisfy me now. I'm shifting to express myself with more materials and multimedia. Each of them is closely tied with my life," the artist said. "The world suffers wars and economic recession, and people are living under bombs. All I hope is the COVID-19 pandemic and the war can end one day. We can go back to a normal life with peace and order."
Wang's painting series "Trip to the Taihang Mountain" depicts this fault block range's towering peaks, deep gorges, continuous waterfalls and peculiar caves.
The painter took 10 years to get into the mountains and even ventured into no man's land.
In addition to the cold, hard rocks, persimmon trees are also Wang's subject. The bright-red fruits decorate the grey mountains in autumn, giving the billions-year old structure a strong vitality.
Other exhibitions:
Town decorated with flowers
The streets of Xinqiao Town are decorated with more than 47,000 shrubs of blossoming flowers. They are mainly cold-resistant varieties such as cornflower and Orychophragmus violaceus (commonly called Chinese violet cress), planted in a random mix of colors of violet, orange, bright yellow and bold red, enriching the city landscape.
Venue: Xinqiao Town
新桥镇
Calligraphy-painting show
A Chinese calligraphy and painting exhibition is on at Xianhe Art Gallery. A total of 16 artists are presenting their latest brush works of ink and water at the monthlong show. Pan Jianmin's "Metropolis" series displays the city's hustle and bustle in black and white, while Lu Chuntao revives the tranquility of a summer lotus pond with pale and colored ink.
Date: Through December 8
Address: 150 Gulang Rd
鼓浪路150号
Food culture-themed park
China's first food culture-themed park, Yland, is now open in Songjiang. Located in the suburban district's new tourism destination Yunjian Granary, the park offers visitors a quick exploration from spring seed, summer sow, autumn harvest and winter storage. People can take a small train to go through the different views of the four seasons, and children can learn a lesson on saving every grain by experiencing the hard labor of farmers.
Venue: Yunjian Granary
Address: 327 Songhui Rd E.
松汇东路327号
