ShanghART Singapore is pleased to present a collaborative exhibition by father-son artist duo Hu Jieming and Hu Weiyi. This exhibition is the result of ShanghART’s Southeast Asia residency programme for this year and showcases about 20 new works created during their travels in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand since December 2017. The exhibition opens on Friday, 14 April 2018 and runs through 23 May 2018.
Using Singapore as the focal point, the artists took on the perspectives of travellers as they studied the local contemporary cultures and natural landscapes, striving to understand the heritage and history of Southeast Asia. Through their works, the artists present their intuitive responses and apt narratives to the urban and natural landscapes encountered.
Produced over the course of the residency programme, the works exhibited include the remodelling of historical artifacts into video installations, along with conceptual phot ography and videos inspired by their experiences.The photographs explore the relationship between people and the environment, reinterpreting the movements of people in the urban landscape. The artists also present a reimagination of reality in a scenario where winter befalls the tropical environment, depicting ideas such as the construction of body representations as part of the tropical scenery and the mental activities of people under the strong ultraviolet rays.
The video installation tells a story from the perspectives of the humanities and nature through two characters whose paths converge under natural circumstances. In contrasting the natural and urban scenery of Singapore by drawing parallels between the forests in nature reserves and the concrete jungle that coexist, the short film provokes us to reflect on our sense of existence as we strive to differentiate between what is imagined and what is real. The fact that it is screened through a remodeled antique film camera further highlights the complexities between the portrayed, the perceived, and the reality.
Reflecting on the Southeast Asia environment, the works illustrate a series of stories about the tropical climate. The intense sunlight results in a diffused impression of a country that does not experience winter. Through this state of diffusion, the works seek to uncover the historical context behind the artists’ experiences, and create a contemplative image that reconciles the nostalgia of the past with the vivid modern society in search of lost memories.
Lines are blurred as the artists juxtapose the present and the past, the perceived and the conceived, and ultimately, the reality and the imagined.
The Southeast Asia residency programme was made possible by ShanghART with the support of the National Arts Council (NAC) and the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB), exploring the potential of Singapore as a site for artistic practice and inspiration, in addition to its status as a hub for art exhibition and business.
About the Artists
Hu Jieming is one of the pioneers of digital media and video installation art in today's China. He shows his partiality to interdisciplinary practices which leads into a blending of remote fields. Hu raises views and questions about time, space, history and memory, while his art covers a range of medium working with photography, video and digital interactive technology. Hu Jieming was born in 1957 in Shanghai, where he resides and work now. He graduated from The Shanghai Institute of Technology, Fine Arts Department in 1984. Exhibiting widely, some of Hu's recent shows include Shanghai Galaxy II, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2017), Lights of Time: Solo Exhibition of Hu Jieming, Aurora Museum, Shanghai (2016), Hu Jieming: Synchrony, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing (2016), Jeffrey Shaw and Hu Jieming Twofold Solo Exhibition, Tai Chi, Chronus Art Center, Shanghai (2014), Reactivation - 9th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2012); N Minutes Video Art Festival, Shanghai (2011); 100 Years in 1 Minute, HU Jieming Solo Exhibition, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (2010).
Hu Weiyi was born in 1990, he is a young new media artist currently living and working in Shanghai. After graduating from the China Academy of Art in 2013, he continued his studies as a Master’s student in at the School of Intermedia Art under the tutelage of Zhang Peili. Perhaps due to his youth, his work is permeated with explorations of the unknown, grappling with life’s sorrows, and curiosity about natural and bodily injury, such as the Low Landscape series or 14mins. He recently transitioned from a stage of grammatical imitation to more of a self-reflective grammatical mould. Hu Weiyi explores the relationship between randomness and nature, reverses it via subjective expression while presupposing the audience’s trajectory. Like many seasoned artists, he has a mastery of space, the conceptual, and the external extension of information. His recent exhibitions include: “Flirt”, a solo exhibition at M50 Art Space in Shanghai in 2014, Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum’s inaugural exhibition “COSMOS” also in 2014, The 2nd “CAFAM Future” Exhibition and the “No Express” exhibition at the UCCA Pavilion in 2015.
About the exhibition
Opening: 14 April 2018, 5.30pm
Papa Curry returns！He will be cooking us delicious curry for the opening of the exhibition.
Exhibition Period: 14 April – 23 May 2018
Address: ShanghART Singapore, 9 Lock Road, #02-22, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108937
Opening Hours: Daily from 11am – 7pm, excluding Mondays, Tuesdays, and Public Holidays
Courtesy of the artists and ShanghART Singapore, for further information please visit www.shanghartgallery.com or contact: +65 6734 9537 | info@shanghartsingapore.com.
