Eastern Conference
Swedish artist Tommy Sveningsson exhibition
Opening time: 2012-Aug-24, 20:00
Exhibition Duration: 2012-Aug-24–Sep 6
Add: TCG Nordica UP-gallery space, Xibalu 101, Kunming
Tel: 0871-4114692
Web site: www.tcgnordica.com
Artist Tommy Sveningsson is the Swedish Västra Götaland scholarhip holder of 2012, he works at TCG Nordica guest studio from June 8 to September 8. He will present his recently works which all made in Kunming, at TCG Nordica UP-gallery space(upstairs) at 8pm, Aug 24.
Artist statement
by Tommy Sveningsson
In the urban city environment, I saw hard-working people in old camouflage uniforms from different time periods of the PLA. Along the streets stood sycamore trees with bark patterns identical to these people’s camouflage. In “Urban Camoflauge” I started with the classic Chinese panoramic format on which I planned to paint landscapes, a new kind of landscape took form in black ink. The patterns of camouflage from PLA´s different periods and terrains represented not only a simplified picture of nature but also a resumé of the past.
Countless shops and market-stalls sold shiny jewelry made of jade– a stone that had great significance as far back as 6000 BC. I had never seen this stone before but when I saw them for sale in kg price as whole dirty stones in a distant market they were filled with an entirely new magic. In “LIGHT” I created an everyday object that carried several interpretations.
Along the highways, on walls, large rocks and cliffs, there were Chinese characters carved and painted in big sweeping gestures. For me it was illegible, and perhaps it was not individual people’s voices which were painted on the walls; but I thought they carried an energy that I could relate to the aesthetics of graffiti. This was the starting point for the work “Sign”.
In Gaoligongshan’s nature reserve in Yunnan grows the wild giant “Big Rhododendron Tree (Rhododendron protistum var. giganteum)”. These giants only exist in this location. At home in Sweden the rhododendron is only seen as a shrub with a decorative purpose in gardens and parks for the beauty of its flowers. There is something magnificent when this flower grows 25 feet above the ground. But there are only 100 trees left of this ancient giant. It can be a reminder of nature’s fragility and the responsibility that rests on humans to care for their environment. It’s the sublime nature that exist in this country which is the source of the aesthetics and quest of beauty that been preserved for centuries. But it requires a wake-up and change in the humans lifestyle and environmental impact if this original beauty will be kept alive.
Opening
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