Ni Hao
Trust Me, Love Me
Duration_ November 2–December 21, 2019
Opening_ Saturday, November 2, 2019, 6–8 PM
Opening_ Saturday, November 2, 2019, 6–8 PM
| Gallery Vacancy is pleased to present Trust Me, Love Me, Ni Hao’s first solo exhibition in Shanghai, from November 2 to December 21, 2019. Series of Structure Study by Ni Hao explores the inelasticity and hidden aggression within the development of technology, translating violent representation into invisible yet surrounding poetics in his sculptural forms through music performance. In Structure Study III (2014), Ni Hao expanded from the scientific fact that the evolution of insects neglects the invention of light bulb. With a series of field practices, the accidental tragic of phototaxis driven insects following their mating impulse at night but unavoidably deceased on the blank music sheets is transformed into the metaphor for human’s belief and adaption to technology and social standards. Representing the artist’s questioning to civilization and instinct, the engraved texts on the light bulbs, Divergent Phototaxis, Vicious Circularity, and Nowhere No Place, hinted the reachable but untouchable distance between reality and faith through the insects’ restless pursuits and deadly attempts to light, with them flying into light but never to the source of light. The waterproof cloth used in the outdoors insect trap is replaced as the embroidered gauze in Light Trap, fragmenting the image of scientifically documented insects through needles and threads from folk-custom craftsmanship, converting knowledges of natural history into non-functioning souvenirs within the embodiment of material civilization. The music scores covered with insects and burn marks are eventually translated into melodies by the invited musician with xylophone. Ni Hao claims that xylophone is the source of first-generation mobile ringtone, which alters interconnection within modern society, both between individuals and between human and environments; and fire serves as the origins of civilization but also brings out wars. The title of the show, Trust Me, Love Me, along with the desultory music reveal the consistent tangling between instinct and standard, belief and practice. The incandescent light traps, insects embedded scores, as well as the performance, video and sound generated from them constitute a series of paralleled yet interwoven works that are displayed on the first floor of the gallery. This exhibition expands from Structure Study III, created by Ni in 2014, investigating power structure, consumerism, and violence aesthetics by utilizing various mediums such as sound, installation and video. His practice constantly provokes political symbols or personal memories behind seemingly familiar objects. Ni retains the original form of real-life objects such as the incandescent light bulbs and scores, but accordingly instigates defamiliarization and re-imagination through reorganization, arousing a bizarre sense of dislocation. How institutional structures control our daily life has become the main axis of Ni's comprehensive artistic practice since 2012. Ni examines different modalities of violent mechanisms and power structures in society, disclosing the contoured reality, as the truth is always more absurd than art. |
work list:
Light Trap (4:25)
2019 Wood, black lights, embroidered organza, blank musical score with glue, airplane seat belts, wires and other hardware
41 x 16 x 66 cm
Light Trap (5:30)
2019
Wood, black lights, embroidered organza, blank musical score with glue, airplane seat belts, wires and other hardware
41 x 16 x 66 cm
Structure Study III
2014
Mixed media : nocturnal insects, scores, Percussionist: Rho Mei Yu
Single channel video, color, sound, 10’14”
Each score: 29.7 x 21cm; 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in
Framed: 46 x 36 cm; 18 1/8 x 14 1/8 in
15 in total
Divergent Photoaxis
2019
light bulb
12.70 cm in diameter
No Place No Where
2019
light bulb
12.70 cm in diameter
Incandescent Wings
2019
light bulb
12.70 cm in diameter
Vicious Circularity
2019
light bulb
12.70 cm in diameter