“So Art Group” in the Second Round “So ? Angle” Opened at Mingtai Space

TEXT:Sue Wang    DATE: 2014.5.9

01 Group photo of artists Qin Guanwei, Wang Haonan, Shi Haopeng, Xu Hongxiang, and Wang Guozhao

At 15:00 on May 6, 2014, “So?Angle” - “So Art Group” in the Second Round opened at Mingtai Space. Five participating artists (Qin Guanwei, Wang Haonan, Shi Haopeng, Xu Hongxiang, and Wang Guozhao) graduated from the Department of Printmaking of China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the group became known when their instructor Li Fan, the deputy director of the Department of Printmaking, CAFA, planned the “Interrogation ? So Art Group in the First Round”, the exhibition collectively shows the works by the So Art Group after two years of anticipation.

Qin Guanwei brings his works “Lottery Millionaire Dream” and “Untitled”. For the work “Lottery Millionaire Dream”, Qin Guanwei bought 500 lotteries from the lottery station the night before the opening day, and authorized Mingtai Space to sell them on site at the price of 10 RMB to 20 RMB at the exhibition. These lottery tickets become artworks created by the artist, with the zsignature of the artist.

Wang Haonan’s work has always been associated with his childhood memory, and he exhibits his work “Losing Weight with the Energy Conservation Law”, in the exhibition hall the audience can get free food, while they must create the relative movement in accordance with the data on the package of the food. Through this, the audience experiences a seemingly equal exchange, as well as arationalised impression of life with pure data.

Shi Haopeng’s “The Door Curtain of Household Garbage” collects household garbage (cigarette packets, pills, papers, paper lanterns, table tennis balls, bells and thousands of crane parts, etc.) to create a door curtain which is then blown by the fan and humidifier.

Xu Hongxiang’s work “Skin” and sound work “I Tell You”. Within the work “Skin”, the artist painted the fleshcolor pigments onto the sculptures, borrowing from thoughts about the body as meat and meat is body, as well as thinking about the painting nature itself. In another work “I Tell You”, which plays a childlike voice like that of his daughter who is just over one and who speaks some words like “democracy”, “ideal”, taught by Xu Hongxiang, who hopes his daughter knows about the reality that she has to face when growing up.

Wang Guozhao introduces a video work “A Day”, which is an exploration of an experimental video. Both in painting and other art expressive forms, he has been trying to dig into the expression of the inner world of the observed object. This time he chooses a very ordinary day in the life of his parents.

It is different from the So Art Group in the first round exhibition which focused on literature to comb through the growth trajectories of the five artists, the second round takes the individual then creates forms so the five artists are the perspective to watch the world, on the basis of the first stage they find a common topic, the five artists with different individual perspectives build the analysis and research of the dialogue, which evolves into a long-term attention of the subject.

The exhibition will continue until May 20.

Journalist: Ye Yuanfeng, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.