Beijing Commune
Until January 28
No Fruit at the Root
is set out as a maze that moves between dark and light spaces, and
through three works that focus the viewer’s gaze so intensely on texture
and surface detail that the subjects and sculptures themselves
are effaced. The effect is not so much disorientating as displacing.
‘Initially, my interests in reflecting on the differences, appearances and unanimities between surface and essence came about from the split personalities inside myself and some of the people around me,’ says artist Hu Xiaoyuan of the wood-and-silk sculptures she has been creating in recent years. The pieces, also titled ‘No Fruit at the Root’, are placed carefully across the floor – geometric shapes in silent conversation with each other. Each discarded block, pillar and joist is partly whitewashed; the surface is then shrouded by taut silk, upon which thin traces of black ink have been laid, mimicking the texture of the wood grain underneath.
The two video works that accompany this are also about the translucency of surface. In ‘See’, the original subject is almost imperceptible – an undulating, white, liquid-like shape, moving across a creamier white background. ‘Drown Dust’, the three-channel video on display in a darkened room, looks closely at corals, the warp and weft in the edge of a fabric and a board that, in close up, is spiked with splinters and rough edges. all of these works are vestiges of wider experiences – other films shot by the artist; objects found in the city or in her studio – but the sense of fleeting impressions is one that can leave viewers pleasantly spooked. The jarring and even limited nature of the works does not diminish the overall sense of otherness, of deposits, left by this intriguing exhibition. Clare Pennington
‘Initially, my interests in reflecting on the differences, appearances and unanimities between surface and essence came about from the split personalities inside myself and some of the people around me,’ says artist Hu Xiaoyuan of the wood-and-silk sculptures she has been creating in recent years. The pieces, also titled ‘No Fruit at the Root’, are placed carefully across the floor – geometric shapes in silent conversation with each other. Each discarded block, pillar and joist is partly whitewashed; the surface is then shrouded by taut silk, upon which thin traces of black ink have been laid, mimicking the texture of the wood grain underneath.
The two video works that accompany this are also about the translucency of surface. In ‘See’, the original subject is almost imperceptible – an undulating, white, liquid-like shape, moving across a creamier white background. ‘Drown Dust’, the three-channel video on display in a darkened room, looks closely at corals, the warp and weft in the edge of a fabric and a board that, in close up, is spiked with splinters and rough edges. all of these works are vestiges of wider experiences – other films shot by the artist; objects found in the city or in her studio – but the sense of fleeting impressions is one that can leave viewers pleasantly spooked. The jarring and even limited nature of the works does not diminish the overall sense of otherness, of deposits, left by this intriguing exhibition. Clare Pennington
Originally posted in Time Out Beijing
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