Opening: Wednesday, November 06, 4 PM
Exhibition: November 07 — December 04, 2024
We are delighted to inaugurate our new temporary space in Shanghai, in collaboration with Amber Contemporary, with a solo exhibition by Zang Kunkun.
Qu Yuan, No. 20, Lane 56
Jianguo Road
Shanghai
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The works in this exhibition were created with simple colours, such as red, blue, yellow and green—the basic colours of the screen, to construct seemingly complex pictorial images from.
Most of the works are embedded with painterly elements referring to a “screen.” In some pieces, simple diagonal divisions create screens with extreme perspectives that appear unfamiliar, unrecognizable, or deliberately concealed, even though certain features—such as “TV stands” or “ultra-thin LCD bezels”—hint at the image of a television. Thus, instead of understanding the works as “screens,” it might be more appropriate to see them as visual languages, whether simple or complex, shaped by the imagery of screens. These languages ultimately serve the artwork. For the artist, the notion of the “screen” may be broader. Beyond screens, some pieces in the series also feature imagery such as “bulletin boards,” “trash bins,” or “bronze mirrors.” These rectangular mediums share characteristics such as display, reflection, mirroring, or a transition from simplicity to complexity (and vice versa), all of which, in this context, can be understood as forms of “screens.”
The screen that is closest to everyday life is, of course, the smartphone. In fact, the earliest inspirations for these works came from short videos across various platforms on mobile phones. These endless streams of highly-dense-information short videos—featuring everything from social events and entertainment news to educational content—are impacting everyone with unprecedented intensity. As Zang Kunkun puts it, “Any random piece of news today would have been a world-shaking event twenty years ago,” yet now, such world-shaking events happen almost every day. The news keeps breaking through people’s psychological thresholds, but at the same time, people have grown numb to it. The novelty, creativity, aesthetics, and critique in art now seem weaker than the overwhelming nature of reality. As a result, it feels as if nothing matters anymore—events cancel each other out in their constant struggle for attention.
In his paintings, Zang Kunkun uses the ever-changing imagery of screens as a way to challenge and wrestle with the traditional notion of the “central subject” in painting. Interspersed throughout the exhibition are several works themed around “fitness equipment,” which serve as reminders of the physical body, reality, and the significance of physical force. These powerful elements collide, intertwine, and, while converging towards a center, simultaneously scatter outward. In this dynamic tension, it seems as though every carefully arranged element within the paintings dissolves, losing its intended significance.
Back to reality, what is important in this era?
—Zang Kunkun