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BÂTON SERPENT III: SPUR TRACK TO THE LEFT

MAR 18-JUN 19, 2016

Curator: Hou Hanru

Overview

This version of Huang Yongping’s solo exhibition at Power Station of Art(Shanghai) will present about 30 pieces according to the space. Besides the large scale installations such as Baton Serpent (2014), PSA will also include many early works from him, showing the artist’s consistent energy, exploration, and reflection.

His philosophical-aesthetic thinking, always singularly independent, and sometimes even nihilistic, strongly highlights the crucial role of skepticism, with which the artist defies the rationalist and anthropocentric hegemony. His artistic language, strong and constantly renewed, is a trans-cultural crossing point between the contemporary expressions and the most traditional influences. With this exhibition, we aim to represent the meeting point for the West and the Non-West, and to put forward debates on cultural identity as well as to challenge ideological and institutional presumptions. The project will eventually be offering a critical analysis of the contemporary geopolitical reality.

Work on Show

Baton Serpent (2014) Installation

Bugarach (2012) Installation, Object

Circus (2012) installation, object

NI Au Siege Des Railleurs Ne S ASSIED (2010) installation

Construction Site (2007) Installation

Snake Tower Model (2008) Installation

Peril De Mouton (1996) installation

Artist

Huang Yong Ping has been one of the most important and influential figures in both the Chinese and global contemporary art worlds since the mid-1980s. Empowered with unique philosophical thoughts and astute artistic language, he has created a complex, dynamic, ever-evolving and monumental body of works that question and criticize all conventional perception and knowledge of the world. Inspired by different cultural references beyond the dominant narrative of modernity, his work releases the power of skepticism from mobile positions and defies all established value systems and identification, providing alternative proposals for us to deal with problems of our time and the future.

A Chinese native, Huang Yong Ping started his artistic career as a leader of the ‘85 New Wave Movement in 1985-1986. He left China to settle in Paris at the end of the1980s and has since been active around the world. This experience of living in constant displacement makes him even more convinced that change is the truth of life and skepticism, the ethical position to adopt. He has developed profound and dynamic reflections on the questions of encounter, confrontation, conflict and negotiation between cultures, traditions, ideologies and political systems. Such questions are becoming increasingly overwhelming in our everyday life, which is driven by the acceleration of globalization, migration, communication, economic expansion and geopolitical competition. As he explains in his notes on the exhibition, the practice of art and the exhibition of works of art are for him to “dispute” – disputing with himself, with others, with architectural spaces, with institutions, in order to “fulfill a matter”, to realize a new reality that will further be polemicized and disputed by the public. In other words, to make and exhibit art is to evoke new forms of public life open to questions and critiques.

See also: Huang Yong Ping

Museum

Established on Oct. 1st, 2012, the Power Station of Art (PSA) is the first state-run museum dedicated to contemporary art in mainland China. It is also home to the Shanghai Biennale.

Standing tall by Shanghai’s mother river, the Huangpu River, PSA now occupies an area of 42-thousand square meters. With an internal height of 27 meters, the museum now houses exhibition sections that add up to 15-thousand square meters, and its 165-meter chimney, being an independent exhibition space, has also become an integral part of Shanghai’s world-famous skyline.

Renovated from the former Nanshi Power Plant, PSA was once the Pavilion of Future during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The museum has not only witnessed the city’s vast changes from the industry age to the IT era, but also provided a rich source of inspirations for artists with its simple yet straightforward architectural styles.

And as Shanghai’s generator for its new urban culture, PSA regards non-stopping innovation and progress as the key to its long-term vitality. The museum has been striving to provide an open platform for the public to learn and appreciate contemporary art, break the barrier between life and art, and promote cooperation and knowledge generation between different schools of art and culture.