Thai Art Space

Tang Contemporary Art presents  "Life is Elsewhere"
Curator: Beili Wang
Artists: Wang Weiwei, Zhu Xinyu, Ma Sibo, Ma Jiawei, Zhou Da and Han Bing

Date: September 1 – October 1, 2011



Tang Contemporary Art - Bangkok
Unit B-28 (Basement), Silom Galleria
919/1 Silom Road (Soi 19), Bangkok 10500 Thailand
Mon - Sat 11 am – 7 pm

OPENING RECEPTION: Tang Contemporary Art cordially invites you to the
Opening Reception on Thursday, September 1 2011, 6 pm.



EXHIBITION BACKGROUND

‘Life is Elsewhere’ is a phrase penned by the French poet Rimbaud. Every person lives their
own individual life, but at times there seems to be no ‘real’ sense of living life. Life is simply a
mode of being. It is something invisible that can transcend the borders of reality - shuttling back
and forth between the spirit world. It is precisely in this place, where exceptional occurrences
are experienced, which can then be depicted through the brush or in text. To have this kind of
displacement of personal experience is to have life elsewhere.

In the title of a Milan Kundera novel, there is a capacity to shape the sensitivity of a young artist’s
inner world. Time and space intertwine as reality and fantasy become enmeshed. Characters from
the stream of conscious are able to display the artist poet’s inner development.

Tang Contemporary Art is proud to present an exhibition of young artists born in the late 70s
and early 80s. They embody a generation who have only just recently left the campus and who
have started to find their feet in this present time. Living in the era of high-speed development of
Chinese society, they have witnessed the brain washing and cloning of their contemporaries due

to consumer culture. It appears that at this urgent moment we need to stop and think about the
question: Where is Life?

With Wang Weiwei’s paintings, life is a space where an unrestrained babble of nonsense can
unfold. An enchanted or possibly terrified little girl roams around a setting that is either night-time
or dawn. This image flits between coherent rationality and a dormant subconscious, a state of
reverie, self-catharsis and also a liberating dose of romanticism.

Zhu Xinyu’s paintings are constructed from life and memory. There is a disorder that arises from
both temporal and spatial notions overlapping and intertwining with one another. Perhaps life is
a process of ruin in relationship to time. We perceive dimensions perhaps by negotiating through
metaphysical aspects of space. Is this dark form of illumination an outline for a kind of summon?

Ma Sibo’s paintings often evoke the calm and serenity experienced in dreams. The paintings often
circulate an ‘Eden-like’ radiant glow of light. They are reminiscent of the tranquil moments you
feel only with the sweet intoxication of dreaming. It is a warm, but fragile composed moment that
perhaps reflects the true essence of life.

Ma Jiawei displays a more realistic observation of living. Using an inspired perspective, we see
cement pipelines in construction sites that we walk past almost everywhere. Far from being
beautiful, reality is shown to be an infinite series of sites, brick, and cement. However, through
the cement pipes there is an echo to a time of childhood, which leaves a lingering and wonderful
imprint on the mind.

Zhou Da uses his painting and installation work to map out life as a topology for the imagination.
He has developed an elaborate method to reproduce a wardrobe, some shelves, and his 29th
floor window with the view of the scenery outside. By mixing objects and elements of his life as
material for his paintings, we are presenting in front of us, a reading that leads us towards an
austere experience of realism. It is a work that perhaps reveals the lifestyle of today’s youth as an
archaeological record of the future.

Han Bing’s paintings are derived from a documentary about the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
The series of paintings solidify onto canvas the fleeting images taken from the screen in order
to allow us to contemplate these moments. They enable us to trace back the smallest and most
minute signs of doubt. The crystallization of the visual images of digital technology, enhances even
more our ability to re-examine the world and the possibilities of life elsewhere. More than simply a
projection of reality, they function as a source of illumination that enhance our field of vision.

Through these multiple viewpoints and individual experiences, these artists together open up a
transient dialogic space. They represent the youth who remain elusive to the dominant ideology.
Instead they emphasize the self-reflection of being through dreams, states of reverie, disorder, and
techniques of self-catharsis. They together evoke a search of ‘life elsewhere’ in a disconcerting
atmosphere of a society wrought by competition and materialism.

For Public and Media Enquires, please contact the gallery at +(662) - 630 1114 Fax: +(662) – 630 3264
or email: bkk@tangcontemporary.com, www.tangcontemporary.com