I remember in my mother language, there is always an old saying: One objects can provide two perceptions. When I was doing my foundation year, I found it in the nature of photography. I took a picture of the Big wheel in the city centre; the big wheel was under deinstallation, I thought it is so interesting in its form and the stillness of being a wheel without the entire structure. The photo was developed and placed on my desk under desk lamp the other night, I realised the stillness is even more obvious; the stillness of a void pervaded in my room from the photo inside. I couldn't tell if the big wheel was being installed or deinstalled anymore. The photo has no space for time to give me any knowledge but clearly I understand it is a photo, the camera captured a particular moment of time. It is the past.
However I think photography is not enough to express this sense of paradox. It even overlaps the sense of time and confuses the viewers in a way that getting the wrong information.
I don't consider myself as an artist to tell viewers any information. It is more like showing an situation, an unknown state. A live installation with object components in a space allows viewers to decide what they want to believe. Imaging if I move the big wheel into a project space, removing all those workers,
almost like viewing a photo, only the photo becomes a live picture with the eyes of frame from viewers.
I suppose the two perceptions don't need to be paradoxical, as long as they are different to each other.
Because then art is very powerful to show things are not what we think they are, or even beyond the territories and floating in between the possibilities. Unknown is a way to know more. Showing an unknown stage is to understand uncertainty can allow us to know more.
In everyday life, we see things that are not what they are. The earth spins but we don't seem to see that.
But around sunrise and sunset, we understand the earth is spinning. So every day we are living in a space of illusion and reality. We choose to believe what we can't see. I enjoy walking and finding places in a city, with my sense of direction or a help of maps. I hate google maps, I never use it in my phone. I don't want to be told I am in where i am, I want to find out where I am. Unless I am very hurry, I will ask for help. But the funny thing is, since living in a foreign country and travelling in big cities, it is sometimes very hard to find a local. Anyway, I enjoy finding and exploring. I know when I have found the place, the way I did won't be the only way and there would be a shortcut.
Result isn't matter too much, the most important is to find the destination with senes, sounds contradicted, doesn't it?
Yesterday I attended a lecture, and usually I carry a drinking bottle with me. The bottle has its logo, and very interestingly the time when i looked at it, the water level was right under the logo. I wondered does it relate to the never-settled idea of 'half empty or half full' glass of water. But I was like, 'Yea, but the logo just ruin the whole thing, apparently it is half full.' Because the logo tells me the sense of direction, information. I was kind of refused to think like that, because I like the coincident a lot. It could take ages to find out how many times do I need to drink in order to get the right water level.
I still think it is half empty hahaha.....
12.1.13
3.10.12
Together they swim swiftly
If guitar indicates penis, then the bass must be the vagina.
Together they swim swiftly.
23.7.12
Study2 under the typhoon no.9
" I would like to make sense of the work by sensing the work."
-Olafur Eliasson
-Olafur Eliasson
thoughts under typhoon signal No.9
I thought light is already quite 'formless' as a medium in art.
After reading the latest review of the new Turbine Hall( The Unilever series) association in Tate Modern, i can't wait to go there and this time, not just sitting on the cold concrete floor but walking with the artwork and listening to it.
Tino Sehgal is the first artist who brings intangible works- stories to the great big inspiring space, he has performers to be the stories teller, to every visitor.
Usually we view works either in the hall or stand right back on the balcony, taking an example of the last piece- a massive vertical projection to show tributes to a dying medium- film, by Tacita Dean, visitors sat or stood in front it while viewing, children bouncing around happily, couples embracing with arms around each others. Audiences became part of the work when they were viewed from the above; but still we were looking at the same direction, viewing a tangible artwork. To compare with Sehgal's work, it is very confusing to define what and where is the artwork. He takes the idea of interaction of individual and groups to the maximum, with very simple material, us- humans, the audiences. We are the artwork. We are the subject and so the object. Visitors go in and the story teller without any hints of identification approaches, telling you his most personal story, asking you questions like' When did you feel a sense of belonging?', these interesting encounters will surely make me think of a doing a proper self reflection. Knowing a bit of the artist's background, who has been living in a foreign country for many years, similarly to the fact that i had spent few years in the UK, well only for studying, i got attached to his straight away. Thinking I was leaving my own motherland, sitting in the coach station when waiting for the bus to Nottingham with absolute anxiety and shivering because of the temperature difference, but very soon i saw many people there were just like me. The emptiness was getting much greater, and as if there was a sound behind me telling to get use to the fact or you will have to suffer more.
I really enjoy spending an afternoon in the Southbank, let alone the Tate modern. Although it is getting much commercial, this thought is apparently came from the two popular solo exhibitions there( Yayoi Kusama and Damien Hirst), it still has a space to the public to get in touch with art( like the new space, tank), and most importantly for free. I was reminded HK is attempting to create a cultural space which is reference to the Southbank, for sure I have only disappointment and no expectation at all. Seeing those extremely tall luxury residences are being built up rapidly in such small city, art is seemingly the last thing to think about. I wonder how i can take a break or some fresh air between those skyscrapers here.
After reading the latest review of the new Turbine Hall( The Unilever series) association in Tate Modern, i can't wait to go there and this time, not just sitting on the cold concrete floor but walking with the artwork and listening to it.
Tino Sehgal is the first artist who brings intangible works- stories to the great big inspiring space, he has performers to be the stories teller, to every visitor.
Usually we view works either in the hall or stand right back on the balcony, taking an example of the last piece- a massive vertical projection to show tributes to a dying medium- film, by Tacita Dean, visitors sat or stood in front it while viewing, children bouncing around happily, couples embracing with arms around each others. Audiences became part of the work when they were viewed from the above; but still we were looking at the same direction, viewing a tangible artwork. To compare with Sehgal's work, it is very confusing to define what and where is the artwork. He takes the idea of interaction of individual and groups to the maximum, with very simple material, us- humans, the audiences. We are the artwork. We are the subject and so the object. Visitors go in and the story teller without any hints of identification approaches, telling you his most personal story, asking you questions like' When did you feel a sense of belonging?', these interesting encounters will surely make me think of a doing a proper self reflection. Knowing a bit of the artist's background, who has been living in a foreign country for many years, similarly to the fact that i had spent few years in the UK, well only for studying, i got attached to his straight away. Thinking I was leaving my own motherland, sitting in the coach station when waiting for the bus to Nottingham with absolute anxiety and shivering because of the temperature difference, but very soon i saw many people there were just like me. The emptiness was getting much greater, and as if there was a sound behind me telling to get use to the fact or you will have to suffer more.
I really enjoy spending an afternoon in the Southbank, let alone the Tate modern. Although it is getting much commercial, this thought is apparently came from the two popular solo exhibitions there( Yayoi Kusama and Damien Hirst), it still has a space to the public to get in touch with art( like the new space, tank), and most importantly for free. I was reminded HK is attempting to create a cultural space which is reference to the Southbank, for sure I have only disappointment and no expectation at all. Seeing those extremely tall luxury residences are being built up rapidly in such small city, art is seemingly the last thing to think about. I wonder how i can take a break or some fresh air between those skyscrapers here.
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