Information
Title: Another Dimension
Artists: Bin Yi, Huang Junhong, Zou Jibiao, Lu Dongjie, Sun Hui, Zhu Wenlan
Organizer: Sun Hui
Gallery Director: Luo Fei
Essay: Xue Tao
Graphic Design: Duan Yunhao
Opening: 2018-5-5 19:30
Duration: 2018-5-5~2018-6-9
Add: TCG Nordica Culture Center, 101# Xiba Road, Xishan District, Kunming
Tel: 0871-64114691
About “Another Dimension”
After so many years of painting, I realize that the era of painting has gone!
The art training industry nowadays is increasing in quality and structure. Nevertheless, the number of painters are decreasing. It seems art is marginalized. However, when I step into an art museum such as Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art or just sit silently on the bench in a library, art becomes an intimate friend accompany with me. The magic power of art is like air all around. It is imperceptible but does exist. There will always be someone getting together and talking about painting or sculpture at night, regardless of the earth rotating indifferently from day to day. Crowd comes and goes in museums in Shanghai and Beijing, and Works have been opened to the public and market for a long time, but the creation process of works is private. Painters always have their own view to the world and their modes of observation and thinking processes are different with others. It is just like the strings in canvas. Sometimes they interweave with each other occasionally and sometimes separate, which reflects the unification of difference and harmony.
The essay is written for the group exhibition on 5th May.
Sun Hui
The greatest achievement of the contemporary art practice in China over the past thirty years must be the expression of the essential power from artists. The essential power stems from exhibitions and activities which are organized spontaneously. That means artists’ self-organization is much more significant and contributory than their art creations. It is understandable because there is few world-class masters in the area of contemporary art of China during last thirty years, but the energy of Chinese artists’ self-organization since 85 culture movement must be an indispensable part of the world’s contemporary art practice. In a sense, self-organization is the beginning of Chinese artists’ independent thinking and action.
Artists’ self-organization has a history of more than thirty years in Yunnan. Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang and other artists initiated and implemented an exhibition tour which called “New Figuration” in 1985 and 1986 and founded “Art Research Group of Southwest China”. During 1994 to 2010, the “Hong Xin Club”, organized by Xue Tao, He Libin, and other artists, had been holding national exhibition activities for 16 years. Ye Yongqing established “Shang He Hall” in Kunming in 1999, and he also established “Chuang Ku” in Kunming with Tang Zhigang and other artists in 2001. In 2005 and 2006, Xiang Weixing, Luo Fei and other artists initiated a project called “Jiang Hu”. In 2006, Lan Qingxing, Tao Jin, Xue Tao and other artists initiated “One-Volume Edition Artist Book Project”, which last until now. In 2009, He Libin and other artists initiated a live art festival called “Obove the Clouds”, which also last until now. From 2009 to 2011, Sun Guojuan, Lei Yan and other artists initiated a female art exhibition called “The Four Seasons”. And in 2014, Zhao Leiming, Xue Tao, Luo Fei and other artists initiated “Art Cycling”. These events are all initiated and implemented by local artists in Yunnan and completely come out of the original motivation for survival and passion for art. Although some activities seem a little bit rough, but it is rough that enriches the imagination of artists in Yunnan, props up their eternal vitality and proves the independent thinking of Yunnan contemporary art.
Sun Hui, an artist who was born in 1985, comes from Datong, Shanxi. He has studied and lived in Kunming for years, which makes him to be one of the artists in Yunnan art environment. Although he has studied and worked in Kunming for nine years, but as an artist born in 80s. he spends most of his time creating in a relatively closed studio and has a few connections with the outside world. In the beginning of this year, he came up with a strange idea. He planned to hold a group exhibition of the generation born in 80s and 90s. It is an exhibition without any sponsor or commercial support, but completely a self-fundraising and self-organized one, which totally belongs to themselves. In this fully commercialized era, it is silly to hold an art activity only in an instinctive urge and without any sponsor or commercial support. However, what makes art valuable is abandoning the value and judgement of successful and vulgar sociology, and instead practicing the inherent original impulse, doing things that is insignificance in others’ eyes. Although this kind of impulse has no practical significance, but it is only this impulse that can escape from the exquisite egoism and can really feel the texture of life.
In this group exhibition organized by Sun Hui, there are six artists, including Bin Yi, Huang Junhong, Zou Jibiao, Lu Dongjie, Sunhui and Zhu Wenlan. Although their works are quite different from contemporary art since they still try hard to complete a masterpiece, but the meaning of their self-organization is much more important than their works. It conveys the native spirit of Yunnan contemporary art. All through the ages, the Yunnan contemporary art has been staying far away from the system and commerce to survive. If the contemporary art must rely on a system to survive, it will be very fragile, and its independent spirit will be questioned. Such indomitable vitality of Yunnan contemporary art is absolutely due to its staying far away those systems and displaying a spiritual value of independence and freedom by pure art pulse.
It is prone to let the chance slip. In any era, each group of artists has their own mission to accomplish. Once miss, the chance will disappear forever. Most of the time, struggle leads to failure, but the much more horrible thing than failure is wasting life. Worshiping to and then gaining grace from “correctness” will not nourish art. On the contrary, it probably be a dose of violent poison. If the artists who were born in 80s and 90s dare not to face failure, their works will have no difference from cheap but exquisite take-out. Sun Hui and other five artists’ exhibition is absolutely a failure, but they are fortunate because they will grow in failure rather than die in success as many artists do.
Xue Tao
April 24th, 2018
Artists
Bin Yi
He was born in 1987 in Yulin, Guangxi, and graduated from Guangxi Arts Institute with the major of oil painting. He is self-employed now.
“For me, art is freedom and all the painting come out of interest. It quite likes an interesting game and I play it with the way I want. I love the images in my memory. My visual dimension is to translate the memory into visible art on canvas. ”
Huang Junhong
He was born in 1994 in Jieyang, Guangdong and has been studied in Yunnan Arts Institute with the major of oil painting since 2014.
In his works, the objects are simple symbolic things. The process of painting is not only painting itself, but also is a performance — a process of description.
Lu Dongjie
He was born in 1987 in Xinjiang, Shanxi and graduated from Yunnan University in 2015 with a master’s degree.
He pursues the expression of colour relations and explores the beauty in structure of objects through painting.
Sun Hui
He was born in Datong, Shanxi in 1985 and graduated from Yunnan University with a master’s degree of oil painting. He studied in Australia in 2015.
He shows his feeling in his works as well as explore the beauty of art langurage.
Zhu Wenlan
She was born in Putian, Fujian in 1995. She studied oil painting in Yunnan Arts Institute during 2013 to 2016 and then studied in Yunnan University.
Her works mostly express the emotional relations between materials and images. No matter what mateirals she used, painting leads the language in combination of feelings.
Zou Jibiao
He was born in Shangrao Jiangxi in 1984 and graduated from Yunnan Arts Institute with a master’s degreee of oil painting.
He is finding a kind of freedom of painting by exploring and enriching painting language in his creation.
