Concrete Horizons
dal 19/2/2004 al 5/9/2004
Segnalato da
19/2/2004
Concrete Horizons
Adam Art Gallery, Wellington
Contemporary Art from China. The exhibition features cities in suitcases, semi-surreal dreamscapes, startling photographic works and elaborate new media installations. While their individual practices are conceptually and aesthetically diverse, the artist in the exhibition have been brought together because they share a common interest in the process of urban growth and development, and seek to reveal the challenges and contradictions inherent in it
The exhibition features cities in suitcases, semi-surreal dreamscapes, startling photographic works and elaborate new media installations. Over the past decade, China has undergone a massive, rapid transformation. Mazes of six lane highways, soaring cranes and towering skyscrapers; expansive shopping malls and looming billboards, are all visual evidence of the unprecedented scale and speed of re-construction which is currently taking place in the major cities of this vast nation.
While one cannot overlook the awe-inspiring transformation of China’s urban spaces, which has been the primary focus of recent exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art, it is similarly impossible to ignore the profound effect of such accelerated change on the day to day lives of ordinary Chinese people.
As society’s visual commentators, the artists in Concrete Horizons critically respond to their continually shifting and often conflicting urban realities. While their individual practices are conceptually and aesthetically diverse, these artists have been brought together because they share a common interest in the process of urban growth and development, and seek to reveal the challenges and contradictions inherent in it.
Featuring 25 works by seven artists from Mainland China, Concrete Horizons features some of the country’s leading contemporary artists, including internationally acclaimed artists, Wang Gong-Xin and Song Dong – who are best known for their new media installations and performance-based, interactive works. Artists Lin Tian-Miao, Yin Xiu-Zhen, and Yang Zhen-Zhong have similarly established international profiles for their photographic and video-based works; while others in the exhibition, including Wang Wei and Wang Jun, represent a younger generation of emerging artists, whose photographic practices are equally compelling. All works will be shown in New Zealand for the first time.
These artists interrogate issues relating to the construction of public and private space; the emerging socio-economic disparity between rural regions and metropolitan centres; the floating population of peasants and migrant labourers; the rise of consumerism and its impact on the environment. Similarly, the prospects of alternative realities are explored in response to the increasingly altered physical landscape, as epitomised by the high-rise metropolis skylines of Beijing and Shanghai.
The exhibition is supported by the Asia 2000 Foundation and Museums Aotearoa and is presented in conjunction with the 2004 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.
Photo courtesy of Victoria University of Wellington
Adam Art Gallery
Gate 3, Kelburn Parade Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday, 11am - 5pm; closed on Mondays & public holidays