Due to the constraints of the exhibition budget, this exhibition could not select some very famous art works as exhibits, so I decided to focus on the selection of exhibits on whether the works can resonate with the audience. I need these works to create a space between reality and illusion for the audience, so that the audience can step into the flow of dreams that cannot be fully interpreted when entering the exhibition. I set three criteria for selection around this goal. First, the theme of the work should be related to dreams, subconscious, memory, etc. Second, the form of the work should be immersive and interactive, which can bring sensory stimulation to the audience to enhance the sense of experience. Third, the artistic language of the work should be open, which can allow multiple interpretations from different perspectives.
In addition, I tend to choose the works of emerging artists, not only because of the constraints of exhibition budget, new artists often have more freedom of expression and more experimental creative language, and are more closely linked to the local youth cultural community, which can enhance the location of the exhibition.
The following is my exhibit list:
Hotbed’s Alibi, Jie Xie, 2024
Variable size
crib, acrylic, monitoring equipment, display, carpet
“For childhood memory loss, it may be trauma caused by not receiving a positive response to a strong psychological need, and these traumas do not disappear, but appear in more subtle ways, such as nightmares, automatic fantasies, memories actively creating false and true confusion, invasive images, or sudden flashes of memory fragments.” Sometimes it can occur in more dangerous ways, such as repetitive compulsion, where you recreate the traumatic experience you had as a child and repeat the same traumatic patterns. I want to reconnect and pay attention to everyone’s inner child, to confront the trauma, missing or unmet needs, beliefs and patterns of behavior that may have existed during childhood, rather than avoid and fear the trauma and memory loss.” (Jie Xie, 2024)
The scene of the virtual dreamscape, Haoyang Chen, 2024
Variable size
video
“Nostalgia is a uniquely human emotion that can bring us comfort and insight. I create a virtual dream filled with Chinese nostalgia, a space that is both connected to the past and full of infinite possibilities, so that young people can reconnect with the past, rekindle their expectations for life, regain their longing for the future, and face the present life with a hopeful attitude. Continue the expectations and imagination of contemporary youth for the future. In this virtual world, I want them to feel familiar and free. You can temporarily get rid of the shackles of the real world, find inner peace and freedom, and pursue the life you really want in the future.” (Haying Chen, 2024)
Alice, Jieyu Tan, 2021
Variable size
video equipment, ha ha lenses, dirt, turf
“Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” as a mental illness in childhood, from the beginning of the name to reveal its symptoms. The main material of this installation work is Ha-ha lens. When the viewer is in it, the distorted sense presented by the mirror reflects the pressure, distortion and alienation of the contemporary people. At the foot of the installation, there is a soft lawn, and the rabbit hole is in the center, just like “Wonderland” as a dream woven by Alice’s patient. To escape all the discomfort of real life. The sensory experience brought by the whole space atmosphere of the work is unreal, and it is a metaphor for the contradictions and struggles between illusion and reality, reality and ideal, distortion and calm, pressure and escape of contemporary people. (Tan Jieyu, 2021)
Good Night, Ziyue Jin, 2024
90cm*180cm*120cm
glass, resin, bed frame, cotton, curtains
“Due to the somatization reaction of severe depression, I can spend 24 hours a day lying in bed, which seems to have become an important organ of my body. What is more magical is that the plots in my dreams can be connected like TV dramas, and the places in my dreams can also be spelled into a complete map, as if the existence of a different world. In the dream, there are two kinds of fish, the good fish can walk freely in the sky, and the bad fish will be locked in the cage, which will make me afraid. Due to severe autism and anxiety, fewer and fewer friends kept in touch with me, and the waking time was painful for me. I began to look forward to dreaming every night. Many warm and luminous fish were my good friends.” (Ziyue Jin, 2024)
