The central point of Vanishing Point is the most direct physiological reaction of the body to the environment. Chen Xiaoyun has added a written narrative and a poetic quality to his works. Image fragments containing different pieces of information are linked together by the text, their interplay producing a synesthesia effect. The abstract quality of the expressive fragmented pictures and narrative text provide the viewer with an imaginative space that is broader than the one they would experience in a traditional linear narrative. The problem of reality becomes abstract, arousing reflection in the mind and heart. The video’s literary style gives the viewer a sense of reading. Although the questions are silent, the text increases the impact on the mind. By probing reality with poetic metaphor, Chen Xiaoyun’s works present a fragmented landscape that is produced through resistance against the systems of reality.
Chen Xiaoyun studied ink painting at the Chinese Academy of Arts and lived as a writer in Suzhou before becoming part of the Hangzhou video art community. Chen’s works stages scenes of everyday life with elements of the strange and the absurd in order to explore existentialist themes through narratives of visual linearity. Chen is drawn to nighttime scenes of ambiguity, making use of shadows and silhouettes in concert with simple plots and fixed scenery to reconcile disjuncture in gazes and assert connections between the filmic eye and reality.
Coherent divergence at John Molloy Gallery – Two Coats of Paint Carter Hodgkin, Dither 12, cut paper collage with acrylic paint, inkjet & protective varnish on canvas over panel, 24 x 24 inches Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / “Mutability,” a thoughtfully conceived and curated group show at John Molloy Gallery, by its title contemplates the elastic aesthetic capacities of painting, drawing, and sculpture...
Migrant Ecologies Project: A Grain of Wheat Inside a Salt Water Crocodile | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Grain of Wheat July 8, 2019 Artist letters, clockwise from top left: Letters from Mari Keski Korsu, Marietta Radomska, Lee Weng Choy and Filippa Ramos...
The Tower of Babel is an installation of large-format photographs that forces the audience to occupy a central position through its monumental scale...
The image of rusted nails, nuts and bolts as shrapnel sandwiched between a fried Chicken burger highlights the contrast between decadence and destruction...
The lengthy titles in Chen Xiaoyun’s work often appear as colophons to his photographs that invite the viewer to a process of self realization through contemplating the distance between word and image...
State Terrorism in the ultimate form of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood features a portrait of the artist wearing a zipped utilitarian jacket reminiscent of a worker’s uniform, with one arm behind his back as if forced to ingest a bundle of stick—a literal portrayal to the definition of fascism...
A Viewing (The Effect) by Anthony Discenza is a continuous voiceover loop intended for presentation in a dedicated, light-and-acoustically controlled space...
Dave is part of Mohamed Bourouissa’s project Horse Day , which stemmed from a residency the artist conducted in Philadelphia in 2014...
Bady Dalloul’s Scrapbook is a 48 minute video beginning from his birth, tracing major global events of the 20 th century, including the beginning and current Occupation and colonization of Palestine, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, assassination of family members and the Syrian diaspora...