Reclusive Means

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Reclusive Means is a cross-generational survey of Chinese artists who use different strategies to question social conformity. Their retreat from society is a conscious means of creating a critical distance for questioning issues of tradition, cultural symbolism, trauma, spirituality, consumerism and dislocation. The desire to provoke a necessary space for independent thinking is not only to satisfy a private longing, but more importantly is also to achieve a deeper level of understanding of the meaning of our existence in a rapidly changing world.

As said by Yuan Hongdao (1568–1610): “Without an obsession, no one is exceptional.” Solitude is the very soil for artists to cultivate eccentricity in their pursuit of true happiness and contentment. In fact, eremitism has a profound history in China that dates back to the time of Confucius or earlier. For example, Zhu Da, otherwise known as Bada Sharen from the Ming dynasty, pretended to be a lunatic Buddhist monk and retreated to the mountain with the intention of escaping from society. In the current information age when intensive urbanisation has pushed many inhabitants to soul search in the countryside, true hermitry is no longer possible. Every aspect of our daily lives relies so heavily on the use of mobile technology for basic sustenance. The only feasible means is to augment our immediate surroundings into imaginary and alternative realities.

On view is a selection of artworks ranging from paintings to design objects and time-based media to convey a collective desire for seeking permanence in an increasingly contingent world. Not bound by the limitation of their immediate surroundings, these artists look to nature and their own personal histories as inspiration for their creative refuge. Reclusive Means!sheds light on the issue of alienation as an impetus for art practice; the artists downplay explicit expressiveness with their works in favour of restraint, deliberately leaving audiences room to contemplate the subtleties of individual artworks. These post-modern literati vanguards extract the inner sanctum of our hearts and reconcile emotional distress with a sense of calm.