Shanghai Gallery of Art, 3F,3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Road,Shanghai
May 18 – June 30, 2013
Two simultaneous shows at the Shanghai Gallery of Art (S.G.A.):
Gao Weigang ( 高伟刚 ) is showing a selection of sculptures and wall decorations, most of them from shiny brass or mirrors. The central and most spectacular piece of the show is a huge ‘golden’ stripe of metal folded into right angles, so that it looks like a staircase winding through the gallery space in an endless loop, defying both gravity as well as any meaning. I first connected it to postminimalism in my mind – pure material (metal), yet organic form. But then the choice of the material here is definitely not random, and the material does not stand for itself. I see the choice of ‘gold’ definitely in connection to the ‘chineseness’ of the piece, referencing the magpie-like love for anything that looks shiny and precious. The golden staircase-snake proceeds in an endless loop reflecting its own emptiness and vanity, as mirrors do. Other works are more modest in scale, however gold and mirrors as well as optical illusions and play prevail. A departure from this mode are the windows of the gallery which have been covered by transparent stickers of stained glass designs, giving gothic cathedral-like feel to the space. This reminded me of the omnipresent LV logo patterns: The wallpaperization of art. This show would fit equally well if staged at the fashion boutique on Bund 3’s ground floor.
MAP Office’s (M.O.) work deals with quite different questions, and prior to seeing the show I wondered how these two artist’s worlds can fit together when shown next to each other. M.O.’s work is much more concerned with the invisible powers and flows that move the world. In “Back Home with Baudelaire” their went of board of a container ship traveling from Shenzhen to Hong Kong, documenting its route. This was an art work created in 2005. Now for the S.G.A. exhibition, the artwork got a second life as “Tracking Baudelaire”: It has been turned into an installation consisting of photographs, a desk with news clippings (a.k.a. the Catain’s Quaters on the ship) and a set of brass engravings of the ship radar screen, “documenting the journey from Hong Kong to Shanghai”, as the handout says. While I could relate to the concept of the underlying work that gave birth to the photographs and the documentary aspects of it, the desk with news clippings and archival materials felt as if M.O. are trying to create their own mythology around the project – especially when incorporating news clippings about the awards which the work as won. I’d prefer to see this materials in a folder next to the reception and not as a part of the ‘artwork’. The brass radar engravings had a ‘merchandise’ feel to me – objects created ex post in a ‘luxurious’ material, ready for sale, yet not augmenting the meaning of the work in any way. The engravings served yet another purpose – they connected very well with Gao Weigang’s work, which was all about bling-bling surfaces. So while I liked the core of M.O.’s work, I felt that in the installation they tried a bit too hard to match up with Gao Weigang’s works, probably under the influence of S.G.A.’s curator (who was not mentioned on the hand-out leaflet).
