Where Are We Going
PV: 18 May 6-9pm
Opening time: 19-21 May 11am – 6pm
“We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We are memory. We are nostalgia. We are longing for a future that will not come.” ------ Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time (2017)
The group exhibition Where Are We Going orbits around the central question: "Where Are We Going?" This inquiry encompasses not only the physical direction of urban development but also the deeper dimensions of personal and collective identity, as well as humanity’s role in reflecting and shaping the future of the planet. Exploring the complexities of identity formation and the artists' respective personal journeys, this exhibition addresses themes such as power dynamics, migration, philosophical inquiries, and the quest for belonging.
Each of the artists included in this show gets on a time travel machine, either delving into the past or venturing into the future. Wheel up! And come again! (2024) created by Taliesin Gilkes-Bower, is an artifact of the near future where vibrational technologies for time travel and past life regression have radically altered human consciousness and culture. Inviting viewers to discover the boundless wonders of the outside world, in Out of Window III, The View of… (2024), Dinghao Zhou memorialises the fleeting essence of memory with his camera. Meanwhile, Yi Li’s work, a series of Walking Along the River (2024), guides us through a mesmerising exploration along the river, navigating the contradictory unity of contingency and necessity. The contradictory unity is also addressed in Ren Yao’s work, Return to the Dust (2024), using a large-scale oil painting, the artist explores the complexity of the concept of sacrifice through the traditional Chinese myth. While completing the mission of saving the world, has he also succeeded in destroying his own world?
Illustrating the importance of realising the vulnerability of other people's lives over one's own, Yuesong Wang’s work, Binary Opposition (2024), shows the problems of racism brought about by socialism in the form of a burlesque performance. Using the third skin, the gypsy dress (a well-known symbolic object of Andalusian culture), which unites the cultural and social identity with the essence being, the artist Yufei Jiang, as a second-generation Chinese raised in Spain, questions the identity formation of Chinese immigrants of the second generation through a series of photographs titled The three skins of an “Andalusian” (2024). Also by exploring objects in daily life, in All One’s Life (2024), Yiming Zhuang displays firewood, rice, oil, and salt - the basic elements that sustain the life of the Chinese nation, reflecting the adaptation and resistance of individuals and collectives in the changing times. Shanhong Li’s work, An Image (2024) plays with something we use every day – language, inviting viewers to write down any image triggered by the texts of the work.