Exhibition
Concept
Exhibition Concept
"Life is a work of art." — Zygmunt Bauman, The Art of Life
How does life become art? It begins with observation. Observation comes before words. Artists attend closely to the details of everyday life and transform them through their practice, giving new meaning and vitality to what they see, think and feel.
Art takes root in life and remains intertwined with it. Life is everywhere, and byways lead toward a glimmer: artistic practice offers another way of seeing. In this exhibition, the "glimmer" stands for each artist’s distinct lived experience and artistry. Through these individual perspectives, the exhibition proposes alternative ways of attending to everyday life and opens up new possibilities for imagining how art might emerge from it. However faint, a glimmer can still resonate. We hope that viewers might discover within these works the poetry of life’s smallest details, and a glimmer of their own.
“Life is a work of art.” — Zygmunt Bauman, The Art of Life
How does life become art? It begins with observation. Observation comes before words. Artists attend closely to the details of everyday life and transform them through their practice, giving new meaning and vitality to what they see, think and feel.
Art takes root in life and remains intertwined with it. Life is everywhere, and byways lead toward a glimmer: artistic practice offers another way of seeing. In this exhibition, the “glimmer” stands for each artist’s distinct lived experience and artistry. Through these individual perspectives, the exhibition proposes alternative ways of attending to everyday life and opens up new possibilities for imagining how art might emerge from it. However faint, a glimmer can still resonate. We hope that viewers might discover within these works the poetry of life’s smallest details, and a glimmer of their own.
Venue:
UHub, No. 35, Tianshou Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China
Co-Curators:
Richie Xiang, Shiyu cai
Exhibition Time:
6 — 9 Dec, 2024
Artist:
Guobao Chen (陈国宝), Yan Feng (冯嫣), Jiaojiao He (何佼佼), Shenghao Liao (廖生浩), Shuangqiang Li (李双强),
Allen Ren (任伦), Ruoxi Ren (任若曦), Yiwei Sun (孙艺玮),
Xinyi Xiang (向芯逸), Kun Wu (吴昆), Jingwen Yu (于静文),
Yan Zhuang (庄棪), Toy Rejuvenation Hall (玩具回春堂),
Nengqi Quan (全能琪)
Gratitude:
ARETÉ SPACE
Life Everywhere:
Byways toward a Glimmer
Installation
Views
Art works
&
Archive
Guobao Chen (b.1993), With her in Ho Chi Minh City, 77x57cm, Oil pastels, receipts, cloth boards, 2024.
Young Rice Series 4, 28x21 cm, Oil pastels, receipts, cloth boards,2019
In Chen Guobao’s studio, I asked how he decides what to paint and how he works with material drawn from life. He paused, then answered firmly: "The criteria are simple. It has to relate to me. It has to be sincere." For him, this means three things: life; objects, especially food and plants; and a commitment to oil pastel.
He records journeys with his girlfriend and makes "portraits" of food in oil pastel, holding onto moments of fullness and vitality. Such simple, heartfelt feelings deserve to be enlarged and remembered.
Observation comes before words. Making art bears faithful witness to life.
His commitment to oil pastel is remarkable. Anyone who has worked with the medium knows how difficult it is to achieve this degree of control. While many traditional media have established bodies of technique, oil pastel gives Chen an opportunity to encounter painting afresh. He can work like a beginner, freely laying down colour, rubbing it away and building it up again, exploring what the medium can do.
Hotel bills and restaurant receipts are evidence of a life lived. Incorporated into the paintings, they bring particular times and places into the image. These fragments become personal markers, gradually forming a history of his life.
Nengqi Quan (b.1996), Passing, 130 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, 2024
Nengqi Quan (b.1996), Intersection, 100 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, 2022
Passing (逝) speaks of loved ones who have died and memories that are slipping away. It is a feeling, a gaze that pauses and stays. Love. Time. A painting. A trace.
Observation comes before words. These works are made to preserve the feeling of a moment—a modest resistance to time’s impermanence.
Quanneng Qi’s work carries a sense of helplessness before the passage of time, yet warmth remains. At home, she has been caring for an abandoned kitten for more than a year. It is now plump and well fed. She tells me that it has been through a great deal, and that simply growing up has been no small achievement.
Henri Bergson’s durée, or duration, concerns time as it is lived: the unfolding of feeling, memory and consciousness. It is the flow of life, rather than time divided into measurable units. Art attends to moments that may be fleeting yet feel inwardly full. These moments become woven into the lived duration of an individual life.
“Downstairs, a light comes on. Someone is about to go up or down the stairs. Life is often like this: some people come into your life, while others gradually drift away.”
Toy Resurrection Clinic, Resurrection Community 2.0, Comprehensive Materials, 2023
Toy Resurrection Clinic, Su Lao Biao, ATV, Fei Feng, Lu Xiang, Comprehensive Materials, 2024
“I am the discarded things, the people who go unnoticed. Once, I was loved and cherished. But at some point, I became ‘useless’, forgotten in a corner.”
Objects speak without words. They tell their stories in silence. What might you feel if an everyday object were given a different use?
Look: these discarded objects, overlooked dreams and forgotten stories are being seen again. Toy Rejuvenation Hall (玩具回春堂) searches them out, giving what has been lost a second life.
Yiwei Sun (b. 1997), Resonance, 1 min 41 sec, Sound work, 2023.
The sounds of these everyday objects move beyond language and the structures of storytelling. They bring us back to sound at its most elemental: vibration and frequency.
Objects echo the small murmurs of everyday life. Their sound is focused and pure, capable of an icy sting or a tremor like thunder
Zhuang Yan (b.1991), Big trees are good for shade, 80 x 120 cm,
oil on canvas, 2019
Zhuang Yan (b.1991), Picking oranges, 80 x 120 cm, oil on canvas, 2018
Jingwen Yu (b.1992), Summer Night, 120 x 90 cm,
Composite Materials on Board, 2020
Jingwen Yu (b.1992), Willow, 60 x 60 cm,
Composite Materials on Board, 2020
Jingwen Yu (b.1992), Summer Night, 120 x 90 cm,
Composite Materials on Board, 2020
iaojiao He (b.1996), Random Notes - Series 7, 40 x 40 cm,
oil on canvas, 2024
Resting in the shade of a banyan tree, passing a roadside mandarin tree: these are everyday sights in Guangzhou. As a child, I remember the streets becoming quieter around Lunar New Year. There were fewer cars, while mandarin stalls appeared everywhere. Their bright orange fruit, mingled with the festive atmosphere, became part of my memory of the city.
Observation comes before words. As these artists bring the details of life closer, what comes into focus in their paintings? What becomes indistinct?
A summer night: fluid, suspended, quiet, flickering with light.
Did the goose see the world beyond the window?
Why is the door open? A door left open keeps a possibility unresolved.
Allen Ren (b.1989), Cookie Comedy Series - So Funny, aren't you hungry? Acrylic on canvas, colored pencils, oil pastels, charcoal, 100cmx120cm, 2024
Shenghao Liao (b.1991), When He fell, He saw the stars all over the ground, 80 x 95 cm, acrylic fabric, 2022
Human beings are creatures who tell stories. Through compelling fabrications, we invent characters and events, using made-up stories to convey real truths to children.
“A monster seen through a child’s eyes, a dream in the middle of the night, a journey without an ending…”
Allen Ren writes bedtime stories for his child. Moving from fiction into the making of artworks, he develops a practice of conceptual art grounded in storytelling. Fiction becomes a path into life, giving unquantifiable feelings and everyday experiences the form of a fable.
Observation finds expression in words
“When he fell, he saw the stars all over the ground.” Shenghao Liao ’s work often begins with moments like this. The mystery and calm of his dark palette meet the elusiveness of life itself. These visual qualities become metaphors for emotions that are distinctly his own.
Xinyi Xiang (b.1994), Source - Living Water, 150 x 110 cm, Comprehensive Materials, 2024
Ruoxi Ren, Summon-Mirror, 50 x 50 cm, opal wood with acrylic, 2024
Shuangqiang Li (b.1992), No.12, Beyond the Light Cone, 120 × 80 cm, Acrylic on fabric, 2024
Rain, evaporation and the circulation of matter are amplified through a bold, direct painterly language. The movement of life takes form—minute and immense at once.
If observation remains unfinished, might it offer another way of narrating life?