Shanghai-based artist Hu Jieming has spent more than 15 years exploring the deeper realities of a cultural vertigo that emerges when a China that is increasingly open to Western ideals is wired to West that is increasingly enchated by the surface details of Eastern cultre.
Hu’s primary mode of expression has been through video installations.In 1996 he created New Journey to the West, a video whose narrative reflects the conflicting pressures felt by the Chineses in their relations with the Western world.This video allegorically examines the feeling of obligation to look to Western culture for cues on technological and commercial advancement(as well as for direction in contemporary art),while still wishing to preserve spiritual and cultural traditions unique to China.
In the Fiction between 1999&2000(2000),Hu Jieming takes on a more universal challenge,the daunting proliferation of media and information engendered by the internet.Hu’s huge informantion labyrinth is constructed from screen captures collected from across the Web and network television during the twenty-four-hour period from midnight of December 31,1999,to midnight of january1,2000.If represents the difficulties we all face in navigating through a world where information can be empowering,but only if we can filter through the barrage of useless images and texts that cloud our minds and dull our instincts.Hu asks.”what will we choose to do when we are controlled by information and lose ourselves?”
Detail pictures:
Facebook
Instagram
WeChat 微信