Stay here for a while
2021/8/15 - 9/5
I lived in Inner Mongolia until 2016, from 2016 to 2020 I lived in Tokyo, and from 2021 I moved to Tohoku, Japan.
Now I will stay here for a while, but I don't know where I will go next.
This aimlessness transcends my body and is reflected in my cultural identity.
This time, I am showing the works I created in three places together: Inner Mongolia, Tokyo, and Tohoku.
They are often ideas and reactions to the environment we are in. Whenever I leave a place, I look back at my previous life. And I compare it to the present.
After COVID-19 became a worldwide epidemic, people were forced to stay for a while. This sense of compulsion exacerbates the sense of conflict between the freedom of movement and the limitations of the individual in today's global age. Through this conflict, we must look at ourselves again.
This exhibition consists of five sections.
「The Last Snow of the Year」
「Copy and shred political textbooks 」
「From 40°N to 39°8'N」
「Today's Story」
「The Glowing House」
「Out of Tokyo」
The Last Snow of the Year
2021
Performance/Installation
In my hometown in Inner Mongolia, I often see elderly people in the park writing on the ground with water. They are practicing calligraphy. It was as if they were playing and the letters they wrote dried up quickly. To me, this behavior is abstract, meaningless, and even more nonsense.
I came to Iwate Prefecture late last year, and last season I experienced such heavy snowfall for the first time in my life. During the long hours of snow piling up and melting, we all had to use our bodies to face the forces of nature.
I put some snow in the freezer and moved it to the exhibit room to melt. Then, with the melted snow and a paintbrush, I will write my personal history and memories of Inner Mongolia, Tokyo and Iwate on the floor of the exhibition room.
The handwriting dries quickly. Just like last season's snow, it is a process from something to nothing. However, the scars of the struggle with nature and life remain on our bodies and in our memories.
The BGM for this performance was a recording of a song my parents sang during a video call with my family.
Copy and shred political textbooks
2018
Installation
This is a personal project that I started in 2018. I made this work by copying political textbooks, breaking political books, and reading political books. It is finally presented in the form of ready-made products, images and sounds.
I spend a lot of time doing it: copying, breaking, and reading these repetitive behaviors. To recall and copy my status in my educational life. I want to explore the impact of an indoctrinated educational model on the individual ideology of life. Surrounded by everyday objects through intensive words, expressing the existence of politics that permeates all the time in daily life, and the repressed institutionalized state of existence. These educational activities surrounding our life and having a permanent impact to every one on every day.
From 40°N to 39°8'N
2021
Painting
Today's Story
2021
Painting
The Glowing House
2021
Photography
These photos were taken during my vacation back to China.
I would let myself to aware the modernization of my country and keep up the constantly updated government policies, so I came back to my hometown almost every year which I could tell how dramatic the city has changed. This change would also have a psychological impact on general public.
Out of Tokyo
2021
Video
In 2019, I documented the artistic practice of my friend LUKA. As you can see in this video, he brought handmade materials from the Ueno campus of the University of the Arts and built a room outdoors, far from Tokyo. LUKA's practice was inspired by Japan's former civilians, pre-war beggars, vagrants and ultra-light hikers.
