Week11#Reflections on the peer comment from Xiao Zhang of my exhibition

After reading Xiao Zhang’s peer comment, I feel very happy and encouraged. Xiao Zhang said that she appreciates my use of flower and microscopic perspective metaphors to emphasize the importance of paying attention to small details to understand and solve big problems. She and I think this is a very valuable topic. I am grateful for her deep understanding and respect for my subject matter, and her affirmation of my chosen artwork. She also expressed her views on the two questions I posed for her in the blog, and I would also like to thank her for her responses. My first question is, as a viewer, can she understand my attempt to connect the macrocosm with one flower and one world during my curatorial process? Her answer is in the affirmative. In addition, her suggestion to me is to explore a wider society of sustainability, such as integrating more content related to industrialization and globalization and putting micro issues into a larger framework. It was very inspiring to me.

In my exhibition works, there is an artwork called Hybrid Garden, which was created by an artist who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. In his video work, he shows the garden ecology in a future world. At that time, the industrial revolution reached its highest stage, and all plants depend on mechanical watering and cultivation, and human beings no longer exist. He tried to discuss the relationship between different individual nouns such as human beings and plants, human beings and industrialization in the process of industrialization, and I will review this work according to Xiao Zhang’s suggestion, I think it is a very valuable curatorial topic to be connected with industrialization, socialization, and globalization.

Xiao Zhang also gave a good answer to my second question about how to improve my curatorial language, and I applied her suggestions and feedback to the final exhibition content. First of all, in my use of curatorial language, she suggested that I avoid using terms that visitors are not familiar with, but try to use clear and concise language that the audience can understand; Informative and engaging at the same time.

I think she’s right, and I tried to use some metaphors and analogies that resonated with the audience along the way. Like my use of flowers as a metaphor for sustainability, this is a powerful tool in the language of my exhibition. She suggested that I could highlight the sensory qualities of the exhibition, such as the scent of flowers or the texture of the soil. Although my works are all bionic flowers in digital media, I can still try to mobilize the visitors’ senses in the process.

At the same time, I also refer to the example given to me by Xiao, an exhibition about environmental visionaries, in this exhibition, it is presented in the 1950s, scientists began to express serious concerns about the destructive impact of modern life on the environment. Since then, architects, designers and artists have joined urgent action to draw attention to the planet’s fragile and endangered ecosystems.

This made me realize that the exhibitions we do have social value, and we should try to convey something more to the audience. All in all, I am very grateful to Xiao Zhang for his comments, which inspired me a lot.