Chinese artist and 2015 Hugo Boss Award nominee Guan Xiao will take over the lower gallery at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London this spring with her first solo show in the United Kingdom.“Flattened Metal” presents a new installation and audio works, as well as Guan’s 2014 video triptych “Action.”Guan’s installation features a series of screens painted to imitate naturally occurring camouflage. In front of the screens is a collection of three-dimensional objects, at once obscured and highlighted by the repetitive patterns behind them. A set of speakers plays sound works Guan created for the exhibition.Guan has created several works in this style, including “Documentary: From National Geographic to BBC,” 2015, currently on display at the Zabludowicz Collection in London.That work focuses on the difficulty of understanding the past from the perspective of the present. It portrays history as a selection of out-of-context moments that can be threaded together to fit any purpose or narrative.“Action” draws upon this theme. The work consists of video clips pulled from the Internet that play out across three screens. Superimposed over the clips are a series of self-empowerment slogans such as, “Make your own rhythms with action” or, “When you find your position and make your own relevance, your world will start running.”From London, “Flattened Metal” will head to Shanghai’s chi K11 Art Space.“Flattened Metal” runs April 20-June 19 at ICA in London.
↧