Mediated Body: Among Objects and Fields
2023-09-18 15:19

Artists: Chen Wei, Chen Xiaoyun, Li Shan, Liu Yi, Su Chang, Xu Zhen, Yao Qingmei
Opening: 4 pm, 16 Sept 2023
Duration: 16 Sept. - 22 Oct. 2023 (11 am – 6 pm, Mon. Closed)
Location: ShanghART Shanghai, West Bund, Bldg. 10, 2555 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China

ShanghART Shanghai is delighted to present the group exhibition "Mediated Body: Among Objects and Fields" on September 16, and will run through October 22. Bringing together works by 7 artists, Chen Xiaoyun, Chen Wei, Su Chang, Li Shan, Liu Yi, Xu Zhen, and Yao Qingmei, the exhibition investigates the body that acts as a medium in contemporary art to connect the artists’ will and the works. In the forms of paintings, sculptures, videos, and installations, the selection of artists in the exhibition applies diverse approaches to explore the perception and extension of the body interacting with objects and fields.

By breaking the instrumental dominance of humans over things, the artists make the body a flow channel for perceiving the outside which connects humans and objects directly. In Chen Xiaoyun's image language, the partial body constitutes the image as a symbolic abstract element, producing a metaphorical narrative in the interaction with objects. Li Shan co-constructs the human body and animals in his "Bio-Art" which breaks the boundaries of human self-centeredness. Liu Yi's animation work "Burning" borrows the body as a spiritual transmitter to pass on fervency and passion.

In the exhibition, the body actions involve people in certain environments, where artists may achieve a meshing between the consciousness and the spiritual space, physical space, and social space. In Chen Wei's artificial landscape, the traces of the body suggest the absence of people, while the ambiguous space implies fragments of realism. The plaster sculptures by Su Chang take the body as a sensational medium to reach the physical space, projecting the extending perception inward. On the other hand, the actions of the body intervene in social space. The video work "Shouting" by Xu Zhen, one of his representative early performance works, hides the actions behind the camera but still disturbs the crowd's order through shouting. Yao Qingmei's video work "Spectrum I" also intervenes in public space through the body, collaging the ballet dancer's gestures image with the real-time image from the phone held by her, forming a multi-layered intertextual relationship with historical images and continuously interrogating the established rules of power.

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Related Artists: LIANG SHAOJI 梁绍基 XU ZHEN 徐震 SU CHANG 苏畅 CHEN XIAOYUN 陈晓云 YAO QINGMEI 姚清妹 CHEN WEI 陈维 LIU YI 刘毅

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