Arthub Favorite: Week 53
Arthub Favorite has been on for a whole year. This week is the last one in 2016. We want to thank all our followers for supporting us in the past year. We will keep on doing it in 2017 to provide more excellent content. In this week, we would like to introduce our long-term friend Song Dong’s exhibition I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven in Rockbund Art Museum.
Duration: January 21 – March 26, 2017
Venue: Rockbund Art Museum, No.200 Huqiu Road.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition, entitled I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven, will be the first major survey of Song’s work in mainland China in 8 years. The exhibition will include some of the artist’s best-known works that have been fundamental in establishing his career, as well as several rarely exhibited works. Amongst the works on display, some pieces have been specially commissioned for this exhibition by RAM such as At Fifty, I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven and Back Image, manifesting the museum’s long-term commitment to support the creativity and production of contemporary art through exhibition projects.
RAM’s entire building will be transformed both inside and out for the exhibition, boldly conveying an expression of both Song’s artistic creation to date, as well as taking a fresh look at his current state of creative exploration. The comprehensive exhibition constitutes a reflection on his life and career, which subsumes his past work into a coherent unity, infusing it with a regained sense of vitality, while imbuing his new creations with the richer context of his development.
The title of the exhibition is a fitting reference to Confucius’ famous aphorism in the Analects, “At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the mandate of heaven. At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of the truth. At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.” Song’s own take on the progress of the sage is playfully contradictory. “At 10 I was not worried. At 20, I was not restrained. At 30, I wasn’t established. At 40, I was perplexed.” and, “at 50, I don’t know the mandate of heaven.”
The reference to Confucius accentuates Song’s preoccupations with Chinese tradition and the inherited wisdom of the common people, while the playfulness owes more to the predominance of Zen and Taoist themes in his work. Throughout his career, humble objects from everyday life have formed the core material of his often transformative and elaborate creations. Though the present production is no exception, there is a decidedly classical flavor to the way of its organization.
Following the Chinese literary tradition, the exhibition is divided into seven “chapters”, each represented by a Chinese character, which together form a line of verse: Jing (镜 mirror), Ying (影 shadow), Yan (言 word), Jue (觉 revelation), Li (历 experience), Wo (我 self), Ming (明 illumination). Each floor of the museum will be dedicated to a chapter of the exhibition, with the seventh chapter (明 illumination) reserved for the exterior of the building itself, where Sketch (RAS Exterior) will see LED lights trace the contours of the building’s facade. The measurements in the original plans for the architecture will also be marked out on the building’s exterior in LED lights, emphasizing a sense of expectation from the past architect into the current days. It is no coincidence that what greets the visitor at the beginning of the exhibition is also its final chapter. One could say that this paradox adroitly encapsulates the spirit of the exhibition as a self-reflective totality.
Upon entering the building the visitor will find one of Song’s more recent works, Mirror Hall, a dazzling mirror series installation composed of recycled window frames and numerous mirrors, amongst which stagged another artwork of his: The Use of Uselessness: Bottle Rack Big Brother, a chandelier constituting of an array of household liquid containers reminding of surveillance cameras, turning the hall of mirrors into an oddly homey panopticon. In the next room there is Eating the City, a meticulously arranged biscuit metropolis free for the public to consume.
The second floor showcases selected video works from 1992 along the walls. The imposing centerpiece, Back Image, is a physical representation of travelling lights projected on a large canvas screen, instead of actual light, the artist employed strings of yarn to mimic the effect of light projection. The work is reminiscent of Song’s childhood experiences viewing open-air screenings of revolutionary films. Other highlights include Wisdom of the Poor: Song Dong Para-Pavilion (displayed on the 4th floor). Originally produced by Song for the 2011 Venice Biennale, the work has been adapted to specific context of its new place at the Rockbund Art Museum. Through an intricate maze-like structure comprised of recycled architectural fragments, Song Dong’s old work will be recreated and functions as a personal pavilion in which a number of his sculptures, videos and paintings are showcased.
Song’s ambitious new work and the anchor of the exhibition, At Fifty, I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven, will be found on the 6th floor. The work features 50 clay dolls representing the artist during previous performances of his career, spread across the atrium’s floor. Lining the walls of the gallery are photos of Song with his favorite childhood doll, documenting a personal story of identification and self-exploration. As visitors complete their journey down the length of the gallery, a final installation piece can be discovered on RAM’s outdoor terrace. A large neon sign faces the view out onto the Huangpu river, writing in light the artist’s personal take on Confucius’ model life story: “At 10 I was not worried. At 20, I was not restrained. At 30, I wasn’t established. At 40, I was perplexed.” and, “at 50, I don’t know the mandate of heaven.”
Song Dong: I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven is not a retrospective, neither a static show. Experience is the essence and soul of it. The exhibition promises to delight both those familiar with Song Dong’s work and those seeking to become acquainted. The breadth of its scope is unparalleled, and the artist does not fail to match it with characteristic depth and charm.
About the Artist
Beijing-based Song Dong (b.1966, Beijing, China) has emerged from a strong Chinese avant-garde performing arts community and developed into a significant contemporary art figure in the progression of Chinese conceptual art. Song graduated from the fine arts department of Capital Normal University in Beijing in 1989. His work ranges from performance and video to photography and sculpture, exploring notions of impermanence and the transience of human endeavor. Song Dong and his wife Yin Xiuzhen together created a new way of collaboration: THE WAY OF CHOPSTICKS in 2001. He is also the co-founder of an artist collective “Polit-Sheer-Form Office”, which was initiated by Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Liu Jianhua, Song Dong, and Leng Lin in 2005.
The artist was honored on various occasions including in 2012 when he won “Power 100 of Chinese Contemporary Art: Artist of the Year” and in 2012 “The First Kiev International Biennale Award”. And in 2011 San Francisco Certificate of Honour. And in 2006 The Grand Award of The Gwanju Biennale in Korea, And in 2010 when he gained the Artron Art China (AAC) Awards as the Artist of the Year (Video and Installation). He was also recognized in 2000 as the UNESCO / ASCHBERG Bursary Laureate.
About the Curators
Liu Yingjiu is the deputy director of Rockbund Art Museum. As one of the founding members of the museum, Liu has been responsible for organizing the opening series of exhibitions in 2010, including Cai Guo-Qiang: Peasant Da Vincis (2010) and 2010 Zeng Fanzhi (2010). Before joining Rockbund Art Museum, he was curator at He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, where he curated and organized a number of exhibitions and public programs, including Immendorf (2005), Paula Modersohn-Becker (2006) and Fresh Eyes: Paintings from National Art Academy Graduates across China (2006, 2007).
Holding an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, Liu Yingjiu has extensive knowledge in contemporary art and museum theories, as well as rich experience in museum administration and project management. As deputy director at RAM he participates in the programming of exhibition and education projects, directs the daily operation of all professional platforms, conceives and leads the museum’s strategic development and innovations.
Xu Tiantian graduted from Fine Arts College of Shanghai University and École supérieure des beaux-arts Tours Angers Le Mans. She joined Rockbund Art Museum in 2014 as cutatorial assistant. She has been involved in the production of several solo exhibitions of both Chinese and international artists including Chen Zhen, Heman Chong, Ugo Rondinone, Mark Bradford and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, as well as group exhibition such as Tell Me A Story: Locality and Narrative (2016).
Xu was the project manager of the inaugural RAM HIGHLIGHT: Zhang Ding: Devouring Time. In 2017, she and Liu Yingjiu, deputy director of Rockbund Art Museum co-curated the exhitbition Song Dong: I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven.