Liao Jiaming: Melting Suns on the Screen

EVENT DESCRIPTION

DE SARTHE is pleased to present Melting Suns on the Screen, a solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist Liao Jiaming, concluding the gallery’s eighth annual de Sarthe Artist Residency (deSAR). Featuring a new body of installation, video, and mixed media artworks, the exhibition imagines an abandoned site of worship, in which relics of a fictional religion are preserved and now discovered. The exhibition’s mystic narrative is founded on the notion that personal desires are the root of all belief systems. Mediating between the spiritual and secular in contemplation of contemporary desires, the artworks manifest as sacralized artefacts of the technological era. Melting Suns on the Screen opens August 31th and runs through September 28th.

Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has given birth to innumerable faiths in search of ultimate fulfillment. For millennia, we looked to the gods hoping that our wishes would be granted, and we have made beautiful objects in our desire-driven devotion. In the age of instant gratification, Liao Jiaming examines the constructs of faith through similar paradigms in contemporary technology. As he invents his own technocentric religion, the artist reenacts the role of both the creator and the follower.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Liao Jiaming was born in 1992 in Guangdong, China, and currently lives and works in Hong Kong. He obtained his BA in Journalism from Sun Yat-sen University in 2016, and his MFA from School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2019.

Liao’s practice investigates the physical and bodily manifestations of identity vis-à-vis gender, technology, and socio-cultural influences. His works span across objects, videos, installations, and performance, crafting narratives that explore traditional as well as contemporary social practices via post-technological means of image-making.