Zhao Yao's new work attends the UCCA group exhibition "Dune Land of the Lustrous"

2019. 04. 23-2019. 09. 08

The summer exhibition at UCCA Dune Art Museum in Beidaihe aims to stir up nearly forgotten cultural memories. Stone, the most common natural object, once played an important role in the embryonic stage of the myth of the birth of primitive society, and then in the folklore and myth, it constantly changed with the cultural evolution, appearing in a variety of mysteries, ghosts or grand scenes. Stone can be the carrier of scripture, the egg shell that gives birth to the deity, the charm that keeps peace, and the object of gaze that gives birth to conception. Curated by Yang Zi, the works on display relate to stone in form and material.

Zhao wants to present the latest work "Something in the Air". Work, in the form of gas model will be a "spiritual above all else" stone magnified 1 million times, apex with Tibetan a བ ས མ ་ བ ླ ོ འ ི ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ཚ ད ་ ཀ ུ ན ་ ག ྱ ི ་ མ ཆ ོ ག spirit (above all). The "Spirit above All" stone is specially engraved for the "Spirit above all" project by the local Kermani stone master. It translates the name of the project into Tibetan and is engraved on stones of different sizes in accordance with local tradition.

Inspired by the Mani stone, the artist created this latest work, which magnifies the stone with a spiritual story into a huge air bag and fills it with air, giving the enclosed gas a kind of temporary energy. A "big, empty" spiritual stone lies between the sky and the sea. How does the knowledge we have, whether cultural, political, historical, or religious, affect our perception of art? 

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