Date | 30 April 2024 18:30 - 21:00
Venue l Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge CB2 1RB
Curator Talks l 19:55 - 20:35, Ground Floor

An Entangled Past

"An Entangled Past", installation space (35 sec). Video documenting of works, including Gestalt Lost in Time (book), An Entangled Past (triptych print) and Fragmented Ocean (installation) for 'RCA 2022'.

Anterior Future

It is an honest review on my own maternal family via a deeper look into the 10,000 old images left by my grandfather before he passed away. Unfortunately I found lots of painful truth behind the scene, including problems with the typical Chinese patriarchal family, domestic violence and childhood psychological trauma.

It took me two days to arrive here. Mountains were steep. The leaves kept hitting my skin. My feet were bleeding. Running, chasing, yet one goes on forgetting.

Farewell and Resurrection

"Farewell and Resurrection" is a performance of mine during which period I felt pushed to the point of destruction for resurrection.

Through this act, all the archives of my previous collected negatives and the single copy of my most treasured piece are burned into ashes. I chose my birthplace where the river meets the ocean to make this performative act. Footages are recorded during the whole process and showcased in this feed.

It is negation of negation, namely quintessential gesture to begin anew.

前者に拠って、自己批判の对象となった中平の初期作品を、あえて展示することの是非に関する問いが生起するであらう。これに対し、私たちわ、過去の否定という重い意味を伝えるために、是非とも当の初期作品を充分に示す必要があると考えた。

原点復帰－横浜 中平卓马

Based on the former, questions arise about the pros and cons of exhibiting Nakahira's early works, which became the object of self-criticism. On the other hand, in order to convey the heavy meaning of denial of the past, we thought that it was necessary to fully show the initial work in question.

DEGREE ZERO - YOKOHAMA NAKAHIRA TAKUMA

Nothing can be forced to live.
The earth is like a drug now, like a voice from far away,
a lover or master. In the end, you do what the voice tells you.
It says forget, you forget.
It says begin again, you begin again.

Louise Glück

Fragmented Ocean

"Fragmented Ocean", installation space (51 sec). Video documenting of works for 'After the Waiting Room'.

An Entangled Past

"An Entangled Past", installation space (35 sec). Video documenting of works, including Gestalt Lost in Time (book), An Entangled Past (triptych print) and Fragmented Ocean (installation) for 'RCA 2022'.

Milan Kundera

Karenin was not overjoyed by the move to Switzerland. Karenin hated change. Dog time cannot be plotted along a straight line; it does not move on and on, from one thing to the next. It moves in a circle like the hands of a clock, which—they, too, unwilling to dash madly ahead—turn round and round the face, day in and day out following the same path. In Prague, when Tomas and Tereza bought a new chair or moved a flower pot, Karenin would look on in displeasure. It disturbed his sense of time. It was as though they were trying to dupe the hands of the clock by changing the numbers on its face.

It’s okay to grasp, but don’t hold on too tightly.

Gestalt Lost in Time

“Hanabi” is an ongoing experimental project for two years which consist of both writing and photography around the theme of fireworks. For me, fireworks are beautiful in its most enigmatic way. How ephemeral yet how eternal; how unforgettable yet how repetitive. One fails to flee from the spectacle regardless. Threads of events in life are similar to the sprakling of the fire like a spoon of sugar.

Birds stopped

mid in the air.

Now it’s there,

at present,

intervals bring illusions and visions.

It is not there,

we could only guess

its next position,

its next juncture

and its next presence.

Like

a spoon of sugar sprinkled into

the boiling water,

hereon any moment of it

can not be dispensed.

Everything

in this world combines

into a large monad,

here isolation of the individuals

is merely hypothesis out of convenience.

Like

webs of the spiders,

connections of being spray out

intricately yet obediently,

adhering all their prey.

“Like a Spoon of Sugar” (poem)

by Xiangyin Tom Gu