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4/7/2007

Attitude I

Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai

Guan Shi, Jiang Guoyuan, Wu Xiaojun,Yu Bogong, Yao Songtao, Xia Xing

curated by Yu Bogong

These two exhibitions will give the Shanghai audience a rare opportunity to witness the dynamic and diverse work coming out of Beijing. Curated by the young artist/curator Yu Bogong the shows’ principal aim is to show an intriguing cross section of thematic and stylistic approaches to life in contemporary China by some of Beijing’s most exciting emerging artists.

Attitude I

Free from the political and cultural constraints born by many of China’s older artists, this new generation turns inwards in an examination of the self and its relationship with contemporary society. There is common desire to confront every aspect and value of today’s world that is perceived as banal, hypocritical and conventional. Their work provides a fascinating insight into the psyche and daily lives of today’s younger generation.

Guan Shi, one of China’s pioneering conceptual photographers uses traditional documentary photography and journey to experience 210 days in his life. With the use of a global positioning receiver, he photographs himself at each longitudinal intersection along the Northern latitude 37 Degree within China’s borders. His principal objective is to deviate from normal daily life and carry out a scientific inspection or quasi-buddhist ritual, commenting on the meaningless behavior that is often used to value life.

Former news editor, Wu Xiaojun uses neon and text to comment on political and social events. I have had enough (2006) is written in neon and translated into ten languages. The artist came across the words whilst reading a news story about the Zapatista rebels in Mexico - it is one of their political slogans – he found it to be the only sentence to touch him during that year.

Also driven by the media, Xia Xing uses headline photographs from the front pages of Beijing’s major newspaper, New Beijing News, as his subject matter. He faithfully reproduces these headline images without personal message or artistic judgment - a picture chronicle of the year 2004. All scenes are unified by a landscape layout and then hung close together to produce a stream of images. This action essentially subverts the individualism of each image allowing the artist to questions the “importance” of these events and reveals the transitory character of emotions such as shock, outrage or dismay.

Ultimately this group of artists are asking us to examine the ruling forces that condition our behavior and thinking, to go beyond the models of reality and minds of the collective and get closer to real truths that underlie human existence.

Opening: 6.30pm to 9pm Thursday July 5th 2007

Eastlink Gallery
Moganshan Lu, 50 - Shanghai

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