Ghost Hit Wall
June 11 – July 19, 2015
Yellow Peril Galelry, Providence, RI, US
Yellow Peril Gallery is pleased to present “Ghost Hit Wall” by Hao Ni, featuring an eclectic series of video, mixed media installations, sculptures, and drawings from June 11 – July 19, 2015. The opening reception is Saturday, June 13 from 6PM – 9PM.
“Ghost Hit Wall” is the literal translation of “鬼打牆”, the Mandarin Chinese expression of getting lost, going in a circle and not being able to get out. “The idea is that when traveling in remote areas, a person is obstructed by walls that ghosts have placed in front of them, thus forcing that person to wander in endless circles,” says Ni. “People also use this term to describe problems with no real solution.”
The works featured in “Ghost Hit Wall” are infused with visual information that encourages viewers to contemplate what it is like to get lost in the various shapes, patterns, words and clues on display. Through organizing, manipulating, repeating, and translating everyday objects and scenarios, the exhibition excavates the different material layers in life to examine the tension, dread and uncertainty under the duress of continuously accelerating time.
The opening reception for “Ghost Hit Wall” is Saturday, June 13, from 6PM – 9PM. The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, July 19, 2015. This is Hao Ni’s second solo exhibition at Yellow Peril Gallery. The first was “Proximity” in 2013.
Show Statement:
“One time I was shrimp fishing with some friends in the mountains, and we got hungry so we decided to drive to the next town over to hit up a night market, which was like 10 minutes away.So we were just having a good time, joking around in the car when we realized that the CD started to repeat but we hadn’t come across the next town yet. It was at this point that I also realized we had never seen another car on the road the whole time. If you looked out the window, it was just rows of sheet metal houses on one side, and farmlands on the other. So we kept talking until my friend noticed that the clock and the gas gage hadn’t moved, and we all started to get nervous.
My friend kept driving while we stared out the window…everything looked so bleak, the houses and farms kept passing but something was missing…there was no one outside, no lights, no animals, nothing, and things felt, for a lack of better word: dead.By this time the fear set in and we started arguing about what to do—some insisted on pulling over to seek directions from one of the houses. But I just felt like that was a bad idea, because, you know, in every horror movie that’s like the last thing you want to do. I told them that we were not running out of time and gas, so we should just keep moving. After about 40 minutes of silence we finally arrived at the town. We talked to some people there and we asked them for directions back to our town. The answer was always the same, there was only one road, the road we came on, the one through the mountains…which was weird because we didn’t see any mountains at all. We finished eating, and we just sat in the car for a long time, because no one wanted to get back on that road again. We prayed before we headed back, hoping that this time the road would be a different one.”
work list:
NJoy the patron saint of e- cigarettes II
2015
cast plastic, aluminum tubing, lights, smoke machine, satellite image of earth at night time printed fleece blanket
152.4 cm x 76.2 cm x 76.2 cm
Window IV
2015
windows, stickers, tape, paper, spray paint on glass, acrylic paint on plastic
122 cm x 152.4 cm x 25.4 cm
Window III
2015
stickers, acrylic paint and plastic on windows
152.4 cm x 101.6 cm x 22.86cm
smoke party
2015
ash, ashtrays, cigarettes, acrylic paint
dimension variable
small smoke sculptures
2011~
cigarettes, ash, adhesives
dimension variable
tiger 2.0
2014
silk scarf, holographic I-phone case, acrylic
approximately 38cm x 51cm x 12.7cm
Smoke Tower
woman
2014
silk scarf, holographic I-phone case, acrylic
approximately 38cm x 51cm x 12.7cm
Chatter I
2015
burnt lemon juice and potassium nitrate on paper, beer stickers
38.1 cm x 45.7 cm
Chatter II
2015
burnt lemon juice and potassium nitrate on paper, beer stickers
85.4cm x 71.1cm
Structure Study III
2014
xylophone, percussionist with dry-erase marker, musical sheet composed of dead
Nocturnal insects and burnt marks. Percussionist: Rho Mei Yu
score size: 21.0 x 29.7cm each
Rice Bridge
2015
HDPE plastic, wax, rubber and engraved glass in plastic bowls
96.5 cm x 20.3cm x 111.8cm
Foat
Rice ball II