Arched Wave: Beyond the Boundaries of Geography

Host: ARCH GALLERY

Artists: Mutian Chen, Longing Hu, Xiaoliang Huang, Ying Li, Mingjun Luo, Bing Ma, Jianping Zou

Curator: Xinyu Wong

Opening: 2024.3.10

Address: 1123 Cultural and Creative Park, Tianxin District, Changsha

At the beginning of the 2024 Chinese New Year, Arch Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the group exhibition,” Arched Wave: Beyond the Boundaries of Geography”, it will be presenting from March 10th to April 20th, 2024. This exhibition is a continuation of the “Arched Wave: Throwing Hidden Strings in the Midst of Discontinuity”, the collaborative project in Pingshan Art Museum hold in December 23rd, 2023. This exhibition is also the second chapter of the “Arched Wave” series and will be shown in the space of Arch Gallery.

When we start discussing regionalism, are we unconsciously establishing a dichotomous position? Arch Gallery, as a local institution, sincerely hopes to transmit and present the contemporary identity and historical potential of this land, and how to transcend the boundaries of geography, and as the goal.

Arch Gallery is honored to present the group exhibition “Arched Wave: Beyond the Boundaries of Geography” on March 10th, which will feature works by artists from Hunan province, including Mutian Chen, Longxiang Hu, Xiaoliang Huang, Ying Li, Mingjun Luo, Bing Ma, and Jianping Zou.

The works in this exhibition range from the translation of traditional religious iconography to the exploration of the compression of contemporary living space, from the simple folk characteristics of growing in the mud and sand to the alienation and expansion of new folklore through the use of polysemous materials. The artists in the exhibition spread out the non-linear structure of “Rhizome”, drawing inspiration from a wide range of historical cultures and typical times, abandoning the order of genealogical structure, developing roots in multiple directions, and spreading and reproducing continuously in a “nomadic” way. The rhizomatic also implies the dismantling of boundaries and spatial decontextualization. Gilles Louis Réné Deleuze said that “it entails movement and the dynamism of change”. Art is essentially “generative”, with change and movement as the driving force behind the artist’s ongoing work. This “de-territorialization” becomes a necessary way to participate in artistic expression and presentation.

Artists are familiar with the journey of wandering and moving away from home, in which their territories are always on the move and their centers are never completely fixed. Hallward said “The land ceases to be land, tending to become simply ground or support”. The original originating from the “land” is hidden in the invisibility or embeddedness of the creation. The seven artists do not limit their attention to geo-spatial or subjective identities, but instead maintain heterogeneity with their different subjective consciousnesses and form a new linkage, with multiple superimposed and reorganized structures, for contemporary artistic practice.

We can only continue to discuss visibility when it transcends the people associated with the process, and the consciousness of visibility is simultaneously projected inward and outward onto the object, consciously or unconsciously inheriting its qualities. In an era of rapid information exchange, territoriality in the narrow sense should not be explored. The artist creates a wandering experience, presenting the disappearance of regional identity, linking culture with personal experience. The constant flux of free consciousness and experience of displacement transcends the boundaries of geography and builds a dense network of intertwined ties, composing different scripts with the superimposition of the variables of the times.