Artist: Chen Xingye
Vernissage: April 11th, 16:00-19:00, 2020
Duration: 2020/4/11- 2020/5/9
Venue: Room 204, Bldg 4A, 50 Moganshan Rd, Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 21 52522551
“The echo mocks her origin to prove she is the original.” —— Rabindranath Tagore
He is passionate to search for record stores in different cities, browsing through the vinyls that carry a sense of their eras. When he collects them, the echo of sound gradually awakes his imagination. As the stylus slides down, the static hiss drags him out of reality, fading into illusions. The shadows of these memories are casting onto the vinyl, becoming the carriers of high fidelity, in the attempt to find the very original melody. Brushes become the tool for bootleg recordings, vibrating on the still surface, leaving marks that are sometimes natural, sometimes too obvious almost real. The misplaced elements lead to a misinterpretation. Yet it becomes an antidote to imagination, bringing endless amusement.
All the works in the exhibition by Chen Xingye are inspired by New Wave record covers back in late 1970s to 1980s. The boundaries of such music is relatively blurry: they adopted the edginess from Punk but also generously accepting the moment. The ambiguous chords triggered the artist’s desire to imitate, to perfect his imaginations despite worldly comments. The process of completing the recreation of personal imagination is a journey to re-discover the existing reality. By replacing the original figures with apes, Chen Xingye provides a symbol that refers to mankind in general with traces back to human origin.Through the apes the viewers shall see a projection of themselves as if it is a mirror reflecting their true inner emotions. If the apes are Chen’s imagination of primitive beauty, the flowers are representation of universal beauty, which connects present and the primeval past. Between primitive and present, reality and nihility, real and fake, Chen Xingye continues his creation with appropriation and rearrangement of images and fonts, attempting to search for the balance between individual inner world and the mundane world.
“High fidelity” is a way of searching for high quality of reproduction of the original sound, but it is not the original after all. However, it would be everyone’s “high fidelity” if they listen to the echos of their hearts and restore their own personal feelings to the greatest extent.
Vanguard Gallery is pleased to present Chen Xingye’s first solo exhibition: High Fidelity in the gallery on April 11th, 2020. The show will last till May 9th, 2020.
Installation View
About the Artist
Chen Xingye, born in Qinhuangdao, Hebei in 1987. Graduated from Tianjin University in 2010, now lives and works in Beijing. Recent exhibition include: Pieces, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China (2017).
