Upwardly mobile: 2007.4.14
Never mind the solo installation with a dated title 2007.4.14 that was open to the public on the same April 14th, 2007, the experience to take a walk and pick up some easy and slow moving paces all over the installation was definitely an upwardly mobile experience. The upwardly or downwardly walk was not particularly tardy even if defying gravity and weight or structure.
Departing from the entrance threshold and running several meters in length, the precast concrete floor is gradually and levelly elevated, tilted or raised to the height of window sills on the other side of the fairly large gallery. At the entrance, the human scale or human experience is real, whereas, at the far end at the highest elevation and right by the windows, the human scale relatively remains the same optically. But the human scale seems to meld into the sky beyond the windows - assuming a dramatic perspective view over the Bund and across the River Pu and the Lujiazui Financial District beyond - literally closer to heaven, or a celestial fusion of diminishing human sense that embraces the vast and magnificent sky. Essentially, the sensurround environment is a device to halt the viewer with some experiential moment coupled with certain optical illusion.
Speaking in visual language, it is not meant to be celestial but only to contexualize a place or a setting. The installation intends to reestablish the relationship between the subject and object, i.e. the viewer with respect to his or her context, and more specifically, the sensual presence of the viewer and the physical presence of an urban environment.
In fact, Gu Dexin's upwardly elevated street scene also includes a cesspool full of dead flies. Relegated towards another side of the gallery, for Gu, the cesspool must have weighted equal significance in his methodical installation while it takes on an extraordinary form of urban documentary. Nevertheless, it is an unnecessary and meaningless aspect of visual narrative.
Just like those talkative show presenters who dominate in their flashy night gowns and suits in those gaudy stage sets, and all in the form of visual and sound pollutions, Gu's installation also droops for the trap of the currently popular gothic form so commonly seen on those ubiquitous TV programs and concerts; Gu's solo suffers from trying to say too much.
This unfortunate part of cesspool installation should be scrapped. The artist has failed to solve its spatial presence; it is not a well integrated visual form. It is none other than some burdensome visual weight that only amounts to taint the overall installation. Indeed, it should simply be an elevated street scene with nothing more beyond its pure and original narrative form.
2007.4.14 is a pseudo-theatrical set. It is an enacted installation and it is an enacted sensual as well as physical presence. The realistic context is raised to become a surrealistic stage, well, nearly surrealistic. 2007.4.14 is literally a transplant from the world outside. It is an exterior street revisited but found within an interior context.
In reality, a street is a dramatic stage. The installation is more than a stage, however, it is but a concept. It does not intend to allude or evade reality. It has no set reason to confuse visually or it tries not to diffuse one's thinking about it, but to gracefully lead a viewer away from reality and into a pseudo-theatrical environment, and further into some surrealistic narrative form.
The pseudo-theatrical environment is perpetually in its monochromatic touch due to its intolerable grayish tone of the ever-present tough concrete floor. The afternoon light brightly pierced through the large windows and into the interior.
To Floria, the very congenial receptionist at Three of the Bund Gallery, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for her most receptive hospitality and in permitting me taking pictures of Gu Dexin's installation.
Art Explication
Jeremy Tew
Hai Shanghai
May 14th, 2007
Departing from the entrance threshold and running several meters in length, the precast concrete floor is gradually and levelly elevated, tilted or raised to the height of window sills on the other side of the fairly large gallery. At the entrance, the human scale or human experience is real, whereas, at the far end at the highest elevation and right by the windows, the human scale relatively remains the same optically. But the human scale seems to meld into the sky beyond the windows - assuming a dramatic perspective view over the Bund and across the River Pu and the Lujiazui Financial District beyond - literally closer to heaven, or a celestial fusion of diminishing human sense that embraces the vast and magnificent sky. Essentially, the sensurround environment is a device to halt the viewer with some experiential moment coupled with certain optical illusion.
Speaking in visual language, it is not meant to be celestial but only to contexualize a place or a setting. The installation intends to reestablish the relationship between the subject and object, i.e. the viewer with respect to his or her context, and more specifically, the sensual presence of the viewer and the physical presence of an urban environment.
In fact, Gu Dexin's upwardly elevated street scene also includes a cesspool full of dead flies. Relegated towards another side of the gallery, for Gu, the cesspool must have weighted equal significance in his methodical installation while it takes on an extraordinary form of urban documentary. Nevertheless, it is an unnecessary and meaningless aspect of visual narrative.
Just like those talkative show presenters who dominate in their flashy night gowns and suits in those gaudy stage sets, and all in the form of visual and sound pollutions, Gu's installation also droops for the trap of the currently popular gothic form so commonly seen on those ubiquitous TV programs and concerts; Gu's solo suffers from trying to say too much.
This unfortunate part of cesspool installation should be scrapped. The artist has failed to solve its spatial presence; it is not a well integrated visual form. It is none other than some burdensome visual weight that only amounts to taint the overall installation. Indeed, it should simply be an elevated street scene with nothing more beyond its pure and original narrative form.
2007.4.14 is a pseudo-theatrical set. It is an enacted installation and it is an enacted sensual as well as physical presence. The realistic context is raised to become a surrealistic stage, well, nearly surrealistic. 2007.4.14 is literally a transplant from the world outside. It is an exterior street revisited but found within an interior context.
In reality, a street is a dramatic stage. The installation is more than a stage, however, it is but a concept. It does not intend to allude or evade reality. It has no set reason to confuse visually or it tries not to diffuse one's thinking about it, but to gracefully lead a viewer away from reality and into a pseudo-theatrical environment, and further into some surrealistic narrative form.
The pseudo-theatrical environment is perpetually in its monochromatic touch due to its intolerable grayish tone of the ever-present tough concrete floor. The afternoon light brightly pierced through the large windows and into the interior.
To Floria, the very congenial receptionist at Three of the Bund Gallery, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for her most receptive hospitality and in permitting me taking pictures of Gu Dexin's installation.
Art Explication
Jeremy Tew
Hai Shanghai
May 14th, 2007
