Week11#My peer comments for Tianxing Peng’s work(About 800 words)

Part I: Tianxing Peng – Bridge of Souls

In Tianxing’s blog, I learned that he is trying to create an exhibition that is related to life, death and soul, and in which he will incorporate interaction with the audience and even some art therapy. The themes of his exhibition are based on relationships, emotions and living things, such as the interplay of emotions between family members, the innate connection between humans and animals, and even some figurative expressions of emotions in the objects on which they are based.

From my point of view, I find the theme of his exhibition very interesting, as the content of international exhibitions in the past few years also deals with topics such as relationships, emotions and emotional expression. Whether it’s happy, sad or heavy, it’s something that will allow us to be thought-provoking outside of the exhibition, so I think he has chosen a very good angle in his choice of topic, about emotions and feelings, which is an ongoing concern for people.

I consider his exhibition to be an interactive installation. In his exhibition, there is a need for actual participation and reflection as a viewer. This is a combination of warm coloured light bulbs that produce a light change according to the sound wave and a light change according to the volume of people speaking. I think there is a very classic description of this piece: s death is not the end, forgetting is.

The second exhibit about Tianxing is an electronic tombstone, which in his introduction is an installation where the viewer is able to engage in a dialogue through time and space, and I think this is a simply wonderful starting point, really very thought-provoking, what is the meaning of our lives? What are the things we realise are important in this life when we actually face death? What is the value of life? These were the thoughts that flashed through my mind after hearing this proposition, and I’m already looking forward to it, even if I haven’t seen the actual exhibit yet.

Part II: My feedback (Only my opinion)

1/ Art therapy or meditation space?

I thought it might be possible to convey some “art therapy” thinking or to create some quiet, comfortable space where people can think about the soul and the meaning of life, without being in a curatorial context, but my suggestion is that art therapy is partly a field of psychology and may be somewhat outside the realm of curation. Perhaps less-emphasized art therapy would be more successful? The offline content of the exhibition may be better prepared in connection with these elements as, in my opinion, the first piece is possibly more prone to illuminating people’s memories or acting as an act of appeal or a statement of reawakened affection.

2/ My answers to his questions:

- Do you think curators need to be able to find potential connections between artworks? If it were you, where would you start with?
  - I think as a curator it is necessary to have the ability to look for potential relationships between artworks. As James said to us when we were at Talbot Rice Gallery, the task of every curator is to tell a continuous story to the viewer, and each of our exhibits is an element, a unit, of that story. I think that each exhibit has a different and unique expression for the artist, so when these works come together, which are rich in emotional expressions in similar directions, there is a wonderful chemistry, and it is up to us as curators to connect them. For me, I tend to start with the themes that I want to express, I set some keywords that I am interested in, and then I look for artists who have something in common with my keywords and ask them about their interests and what their work is about.
- Do you think that if technology is integrated into art exhibitions in the future, people will pay more attention to the technical level or the conceptual level of the exhibition? Do you think it’s right to do this (technical intervention)
  - - I think people will pay more attention to the technical aspect, because the concept is a very general content after all, and for exhibitions, it is a major trend of international exhibitions in recent years to bring audiences audio-visual or interactive feelings. For the audience themselves, they are more willing to accept those “intuitive” effects that can be seen with the naked eye, so I think technology is very important for the exhibition to a certain extent. But we can’t just be limited to the technical level, otherwise, just like visiting a science and technology museum, we also need to combine cutting-edge concepts to let the audience have multiple exhibition experiences.