Group Exhibition Prework x Veenue Gallery, Shanghai
PREWORK presents its inaugural group exhibition, Knock, Knock, Knock, bringing together works by five emerging Chinese artists: Chang Cheng, Cheng Zhichu, Han Qian, Liu Ke, and Li Zhuoheng. Through painting, moving image, installation, and designed furniture, the exhibition envisions the home as a site where humans and non-human beings coexist and cohabit, unfolding a domestic-scale Metamorphosis. The exhibition opens on March 17, 2023, and runs through May 12, 2023.
The artists' works are interconnected within the shared space of the home, where the "I" depicted in each work exists in symbiosis with other forms of being. Every corner of the house bears traces of human intention. Whispers, thoughts, and emotions permeate the space, filling it with voices that are at once private monologues and sites of confusion and conflict. In every room, the will of the self lingers like an inescapable murmur, continuously negotiating, struggling, merging, and forming intimate relationships with other beings that inhabit the domestic environment.
But have you ever imagined what happens after you leave your home? What if it were occupied by strange and unfamiliar creatures? Are you truly the absolute master of your home? Is it possible that you have been living alongside unknown beings all along? Whether living alone, as a couple, or within an extended family, how do humans coexist beneath one roof with objects, environments, animals, food, and even bacteria? How is the notion of the "self" defined within such a confined space? Where do the boundaries between humans and things lie—or is it even necessary to draw them at all?
Within the home, every entity can be understood as an externalization of human will. Everyday household objects extend the body's sensory capacities; companion species mirror human emotions; unseen forces such as feng shui and invisible currents of fortune shape the human psyche. Human life depends fundamentally upon non-human beings. If this is so, do clear boundaries between them truly exist? Within this intensely concentrated domestic realm, we may constantly shift between different forms of being, for they are quietly growing among us, gradually embedding themselves within our bodies.
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