The story of War in the Pocket:
In the year 2002, duringthe “24:30”—a war some how close to an answer to a curtain call.
In a factory, which is seemingly neutral butsecretly insists on revolutionary movement, there is a young boy named Hali. Heshould have no relationship with war or philosophy. However, it is because therevolutionary army had set their secret factory in exact this neutral factorythat he met with King purely by chance, who had been shot down in the war. Fromthen on, Hali got involved in the clash of reality and ideal. Finally, in thissmall space, which is just like a pocket, he saw the reality of war. The unionarmy leveled their guns at King. Not even knowing what danger is, King lookedup to Hali while his hands with batons slowly slacked down. With that moment,the driver once been shot down had left indelible impression in Hali’s heart.
War in the Pocket
Artist: Gao Mingyan
Opening: May 26, 17:00- 20:00
(International Day of the challenging body condition)
Duration: May 26 – July 2, 2016
Address: Rm204, Bldg 4A, 50 Moganshan Rd,Shanghai Vanguard Gallery
Phone: 86 21 62993523
www.vanguardgallery.com
By regarding the exhibition as a fiction, then wemay come to the conclusion that exploring the reality by fiction may be a kindof emotional imaginary on contemporary art by Gao Mingyan. When the real spaceturns to be the stage of his stories, stories developed scene by scene on thestage. You could realize that in the exhibition, each work is actually afootnote of his story.
In a fictional narrative, everything in imaginaryworld seems to be limited in imagination. However, in Gao Mingyan’s perspective,to fiction an inexistent story is equal to place a metaphor of the real world.By doing so, the fictional space begins to permeate through the real dimension.The artist no longer views and represents the reality through the dimension ofreality, in reverse, the fictionality turns out to be the reflection of thereal world. We gradually realize that this is not a story about war betweenrevolutionary army and union army in a remote planet. The story actuallyreflects the perception and consideration of Chinese contemporary art in thisperiod. Hali is exact the artist himself, through whom we are able to take aglance at the introspection from Gao Mingyan, as an artist, of the Chinesecontemporary art.
Here, the works as footnotes, quickly help theviewers blend into this space created by imagination and reality. Following thedecoding works from Gao Mingyan, we seemingly become the major character of thestory and experience what he has gone through. As we look back all these works,we may find that the original meanings have melted in the stories, Byevacuating the inherent meaning, the nature of common things has beenamplified. The works, when being afforded some specialized signifier, aresearching for the turning of symbol that is correspondent to the signified.
This exhibition is only the beginning of thisfiction. In this fictional world, everything will change just like the realworld. However, through fictional tacit content and suspensions of suspicion,we have to accept these changes, just like (actually) they are real.
