Uroboros is a kind of snake that likes to hold its tail in its mouth and creates an “O” ring body shape. In ancient Europe, “snake” symbolizes the integration of life and death because snakes only get a new life after abandoning their old skin. The connection between life and death produces the image of Uroboros.
On August 20, 2016, the solo exhibition of the artist Wu Juehui “Bit Palace – Uroboros” opened at Today Art Museum on the second floor of building 1. The show is organized by Today Art Museum and the idea of Bit Palace was the joint efforts of the artist himself, the curatorial team and the production team. They gathered together to explore how to conduct art practices in different dimensions and how to create the feeling of entering a new dimension for the audience.
The second floor of building 1, Today Art Museum was changed to a dark space, to present the work, which was named as Bit Palace – Uroboros by the artist. Through a dark aisle the audience walks into the exhibition hall, he/she can see a “9x9x9m” giant matrix, which is constructed using a scaffold, in the center of the matrix it forms a highighting light, together with the specially designed video projection and an immersive sound field to create a mysterious and cool sense, while a variety of elements are perfectly arranged. The artist thinks that, “the audience can not only watch it from a distance, but also has to walk into it to feel about the new dimension created by the Bit Palace.”
The idea of Bit Palace – Uroboros was a common achievement of the artist, curatorial team and production team. Bit Palace refers to the main artistic media in this artwork and it shows respect for modern technology as the matrix itself is a result of science and technology. The ancient Uroboros, where the inspiration comes from, embodies the artist’s understanding of life and death, the bounded space and boundless universe and his respect for our scientific revolution and intellectual development. The scaffold, the stairs, the light and the video projection – all bear a metaphor. The scaffold, which leaves a big white space, is an innuendo of the naked city contour without the cover of ceaseless city construction. The open yard means the infinite border and the lifting light in it symbolizes the “sun”, which projects the shadow of scaffold outward and thus at the same time enlarges the matrix palace. The video projection is like the “moon” which lights up the images flowing on the surface of the steel pipe and thus draws space back into the palace. From the overlapping shadows, you can figure out the virtual space that switched from the “sun” to the “moon”, which is just like the end-to-end Uroboros.
The immersive sound field and the sense of ritual attracts the audience and encourages them to travel in this new dimension. The Director of Today Art Museum Alex Gao Peng serves as the curator of the exhibition, and he said that, “this exhibition is a demonstration and development of ‘Future of Today’ because it challenges the traditional space concept with art and breaks out of the shackles of real space to explore the unknown world. Wu Juehui, as an avant garde artist in the ‘future gallery’, is promoting his idea of ‘meeting the future’ with his artworks.”
Bit Palace – Uroboros remains on view till September 2.
Text by Lin Jiabin, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
Photo courtesy of Today Art Museum
About the Artist
Wu Juehui
Media Artist, born in 1980
Teaching at School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art
Founder of UFO Media Lab
As a young artist using media art, Wu Juehui, who was born in 1980, focuses on cross-border-amalgamation, concerning interactive art, bio-art, media theater etc. to show the plurality of art creation. Wu’s saying that “Art as the antimatter of science and technology.” shows his perspective in relation to art and science. Since 2009, WU has been trying to intrude and reproduce the sense organs via popular technology in the “Organ Project”; While in 2014, Wu starts using different media to simulate the deviations during the procedure of creating, resulting in a series of meaningless creatures, namely the “STAR ZOO”.
Wu has participated in several national and international art exhibitions and festivals, such as “International Triennial of New Media Art (Translife 2011 /Thingworld 2014 / Synthetic Times 2008)”, “Eyebeam 2014 Annual Showcase”, “Shanghai Biennale”, “ZERO1 Biennial”, “The Creators Project”, “SHIFT-Electronic Arts Festival”, “Shanghai eArts Festival” and etc.
