Junk genre: Drawing inspiration from the useless
Updated: 2016-01-26 10:03
By Lin Qi(China Daily)
|
||||||||
Song Dong displays at his solo show, Surplus Value, the everyday items that have been transformed into art installations.[Photo provided to China Daily] |
He is recognized as one of China's foremost conceptual artists.
Song Dong, 50, has been using objects of daily use in experimental art projects since 2002, discovering aesthetics in discarded things.
The items that he uses range from shoes and window frames to empty bottles and ceramic tiles, and they all come from stuff accumulated by his family over the past decades.
He has transformed these everyday items into art installations and has displayed them around the world.
When recycling old things, Song is not interested in simple remakes like "turning a tin can into a vase", he says.
He attempts to bring out their aesthetic value.
Song's creations are filled with both personal and collective emotions of gratitude and love. Through this, he tries to teach viewers about refinement and life.
Song's current solo exhibition, Surplus Value, at Pace Beijing continues his study of the relationship between people and waste.
"Song Dong has created an art vocabulary based on his personal experiences of growing up (in a Beijing hutong)," says Leng Lin, art critic, curator and president of Pace Beijing.
"He uses items of daily use, which are often ignored and abandoned, to create his works," he says.
At the entrance of the exhibition, Song has placed piles of window frames from his late mother's house, similar to the ones he has used in his displayed works.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a floor-to-ceiling prismatic installation called Zuo Jing Guan Tian. It consists of dozens of the old frames which have been fitted with new glass. When one enters the installation, one is bathed in light produced by a lamp on top of it and from the reflection on the windows.
The title of the work is derived from a Chinese idiom about a frog that looks at the sky from the bottom of a well and hence has a narrow view of the world.
"A person's outlook is limited. Everyone can be that frog in a well. We jump out of the well and go into another well with a wider mouth, by which our knowledge is increased and our mental horizons are widened," Song tells China Daily.
In the installation Emptied Bottles, he fixes several used bottles to a pole to represent cameras on a street. In this work, he looks at the relationship between those being watched and those who are watching them.
- A glimpse of Spring Rush: little migrant birds on the way home
- Policy puts focus on genuine artistic students
- Police unravel market where babies are bought, sold as commodities
- More older pregnant women expected
- Netizen backlash 'ugly' Spring Festival Gala mascot
- China builds Mongolian language corpus
- 2 Chinese nationals killed, 1 injured in suspected bomb attack in Laos
- New York, Washington clean up after fatal blizzard
- 'Plane wreckage' found in Thailand fuels talk of missing Malaysian jet
- Washington shuts down govt, NY rebounds after blizzard
- 7 policemen, 3 civilians killed in Egypt's Giza blast
- Former US Marine held in Iran arrives home after swap
- First trains of Spring Festival travel depart around China
- Dough figurines of Monkey King welcome the New Year
- Ning Zetao, Liu Hong named China's athletes of the year
- Top 10 smartphone vendors based on market share in 2015
- Snow scenery across China
- Storm grips New York after dumping 2 feet of snow on Washington
- Art exhibitions in 2016 worth seeing
- Winter flexes its muscles as cold snap makes its way
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
8 highlights about V-day Parade |
Glimpses of Tibet: Plateaus, people and faith |
Chinese entrepreneurs remain optimistic despite economic downfall |
50th anniversary of Tibet autonomous region |
Tianjin explosions: Deaths, destruction and bravery |
Cinemas enjoy strong first half |
Today's Top News
National Art Museum showing 400 puppets in new exhibition
Finest Chinese porcelains expected to fetch over $28 million
Monkey portraits by Chinese ink painting masters
Beijing's movie fans in for new experience
Obama to deliver final State of the Union speech
Shooting rampage at US social services agency leaves 14 dead
Chinese bargain hunters are changing the retail game
Chinese president arrives in Turkey for G20 summit
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |