Feng Boyi

This is a group exhibition by several young artists, the majority female. Most of them are still undergraduate and graduate students. As young people themselves, their experiences of youth are invaluable and irreplaceable. There has always been a close tie between youth and consumerism; the main contradictions in the world of young people lie in their combined power of imagination and consumerism, as well as their liveliness and cynicism. These sad, bright, rebellious, wishful, outrageous, flying experiences of youth make up one of the main subject matters of this exhibition. Filled with exaggerated self-pity, and an impression of sentimentality and confusion, they seem to be a natural outlet for existence and emotional memories; smooth and soundless, yet shocking to the heart and soul. This leads to a secretive manner, or even an attitude of completely absorbed enjoyment. Most of them obey a world of self-sufficiency, a vernacular plot model and fashionable interests overflow in elegant quality, giving the viewer of the details a momentary warmth or pain in the heart.  

China, in a time of increasing multiplicity and in a modernization process leading us to an unknown destination, is undergoing changes that are rapid and complex; in an era of constant transformation, all matters have such complexity, many borders are ambiguous. People’s desire, social interactions, the use of power, including money relations that we consider transparent are, in reality, neither clear nor distinguishable. Among people, ambiguity in sexuality and indefinable emotions, cause them to drift afloat endlessly. There is no boundary, no extreme, no particular meaning expressed through their creativity; there is only a state of existence. Such an artistic transformation, self-suppression or abandonment, is touching upon a truth of emotion and psyche, like an isolated emotion or attitude of self-respect. Perhaps, they want to emphasize the instability modes of viewing in the midst of instability – they are nothing like past artists whose sole focus was on “stable meaning” itself. 

At the end of each era, or in periods of transition, there are always some fairies, self-aware but aimless, living in the world but on the borders. They are young and awkward people who are unwilling to mess with the common world. They produce artistic works under the same state, and exist through every kind of expression. Whether simply being a person or creating, they are maintaining a state of reorganization, experimenting while imagining. No matter how the actual world changes, art will always be constant. Art produced from border existence also reflects on actual life. With a unique display and form, they gradually shape their own characteristics and extend in a certain direction. Only this ambiguous wandering; perhaps their motion can only be viewed in stillness. Perhaps we are also inquiring, what kind of social context reflects the tendencies of their values and their aesthetic tastes? Of course, my discussion here also reveals my own values, and interests, nothing but filling a few lines with my impressions.