{"id":6984,"date":"2019-03-29T08:58:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T00:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vitamincreativespace.art\/en\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2019-03-29T08:58:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T00:58:24","slug":"mirrored-gardens-2018-autumn-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/?p=6984","title":{"rendered":"Mirrored Gardens 2018 Autumn & Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Letter to a Traveler\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n

How are you doing? Hope everything is going well with you! At the transition of seasons, the \u201cMirror Gardens\u201d has also experienced the changes of light, plants and space. In the past few months, we\u2019ve been exploring, imagining about ways of perception in the future, trying to let different parallel artistic practices and thinking rest upon each other via the course of the everyday, just like the overlapping of different kinds of writings and the accumulations of geological layers.<\/p>\n

While new \u201ctopographies\u201d and \u201cwritings\u201d are slowly emerging, we warmly invite you to come and wander at the Mirror Gardens in the daily opening time. We hope you all will pass through and feel the multitude of parallel worlds in various pace and from different perspectives. Let the dance of thoughts and the wandering of the body converge, and freely discover a space that belongs to you:<\/p>\n

Zheng Guogu: Visionary World in a Changing State of Mind<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Yangjiang Group: A Piece of Kuang Cao Bright Moon<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBorrowed Scenery\u201d of Danh Vo:<\/span><\/a><\/span>
\n Enzo Mari\uff1a1974\u2019s autoprogettazione<\/span><\/a><\/span>
\n Isamu Noguchi: Akari series<\/span><\/a><\/span>
\n Dong pavilion<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

the shop 2018 edition No.3\uff1a<\/span><\/a><\/span>
\n Michele Ciacciofera:\u00a0 The Translucent Skin of The Present<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Wish you a bright and beautiful autumn, and hope to have you re-visit again in the daily process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilent journeys\u201d group, Mirror Gardens<\/p>\n

\"01 \"02 \"06 \"08 \"09<\/p>\n

Mirrored Gardens view<\/span><\/p>\n

– – –<\/span><\/p>\n

Journeying, Tracing Back, Faint Clues, and a World of Entangled Quantum Particles<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

If, on an autumn day, you are traveling alone and stumble across this place, you will find yourself stepping into a scene that conjures a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu \u2013 the light, the wind, the steps. You will encounter artisans, potters, writers, ancient fossils, and a pavilion where you might stop to take a rest. Situated inside a dance with no choreography, you will be continuously changing positions. You will engage in the reading not only of books, images, and calligraphy, but also of the plants, the light, and the figures of other passersby. The forms and appearances of objects will emerge under the changing light, ceaselessly influencing the way in which you perceive your surroundings.<\/p>\n

Time passes, layers of \u201cgeoloy accumulate\u201d, written texts repeat and overlap, and from this, a world emerges in a form that could not have been anticipated, inviting our engagement and exploration. At this moment, what exists at Mirrored Gardens<\/em> (\u955c\u82b1\u56ed) is not an exhibition, but a series of parallel yet interlacing worlds. There are remnants, from faint traces to direct signals, revealing what has accumulated and evolved in these worlds since the summer, worlds which have been built out of different entities and shaped by different groups. Within them, there also resides instances of energetic resonance and inarticulable dialogue, independent existences as well as the use of \u201cborrowed scenery\u201d (\u501f\u666f). What results is a comprehensive experience of an everyday consciousness.<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

\u201cBorrowed Scenery,\u201d Danh Vo: As we lean into the theoretical journey of Danh Vo\u2019s artistic practice, we encounter the subjects of several of his deepest passions: Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi, the world of Italian designer and artist Enzo Mari, and the space of the Dong Pavilion. By way of the faintly discernible connections shared among these subjects, we embark upon an understanding toward the many layers of Danh Vo\u2019s contemporary art practice. As Noguchi explained himself, the Akari<\/em> light series (Akari meaning \u201clight\u201d or \u201cbrightness\u201d in Japanese) \u201callows us to feel the presence of sunlight during the dark night, its warmth continuing to linger indoors.\u201d Noguchi\u2019s conception of light, then, transcends the general surface beauty of form, and penetrates straight into human nature\u2019s deep longing for warmth. The design practice behind Enzo Mari\u2019s autoprogettazione<\/em> (or \u201cself design\u201d), presented in 1974, is also an emphatic return to the basic needs of humans, suggesting a reversion to an active relationship with the material world. The Dong Pavilion is a traditional space for the Dong people, a structure used in field labor, rest, and congregating. The cedar trees in the mountains, alongside the children, grow taller, and once the trees are tall enough to be used for their wood, they are transformed into homes for the next generation, as well as pavilions and drum towers for congregation. The actual process of woodworking becomes an abiding support during this transition into a different stage of life. Danh Vo\u2019s practice of contemporary art, which started in the realm of his personal experiences, has since journeyed around the entire world, engaging in an investigation of the complicated faces of history\u2014especially in relation to identity and belonging, authority and ownership, the role of personal relationships, and the survival of other human groups\u2014and focusing in on the question of how humans might achieve a state of freedom in today\u2019s world. This trail of questions has brought together Noguchi\u2019s Akari<\/em> light series, Enzo Mari\u2019s autoprogetttazione<\/em> furniture, and the Dong Pavilion, ushering them into the Mirrored Gardens.<\/em> Along this winding path of investigation, different lines of history are being reconnected and reconstructed, as well as colliding together, slowly forming our ideas about the possibilities of being alive today.<\/p>\n

\"DV_0417\"\u00a0Danh Vo: Take My Breath Away,<\/em> 2018, Exhibition view at SMK-National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u4f97\u5be8\u4ead\u5b50\"Dong Pavilion, Di Men, Guizhou. Image:\u00a0Xiao Chang<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u5c55\u89c8\u73b0\u573a\"\u00a0Danh Vo:\u00a0Take My Breath Away,<\/em>\u00a02018, Exhibition view at SMK-National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n

\"Akari\u706f\"Isamu Noguchi and his Akari<\/em> light series, 1950s. Reference image.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_2170\"Enzo Mari: autoprogettazione<\/em>, 1974. Design diagram and photo of artist with models. Reference image<\/span>.<\/p>\n

This conception of the Mirrored Gardens also affects the space-time in which \u201cthe shop\u201d exists. Amid the various perceptions and modes of appreciation aroused by each individual\u2019s life experiences, the surroundings, including that of \u201cthe shop,\u201d become fluid and dynamic. Therefore, the spatial form of \u201cthe shop\u201d possesses a dynamic relationship with the \u201cforms\u201d of the objects it contains. Those \u201cobjects in use\u201d reveal the functional evolution and cultural meaning contained within \u201cform,\u201d which is a product of a cultural history, containing both unions and ruptures. The stories condensed within these objects, under our current observation and use, and in their response to reality and the possibilities they suggest in our lives, stimulate and activate the idea of \u201clife today.\u201d<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Where can we find art that relates to how humans might protect, preserve, and nurture the energies of life? What medium can be used to pass on those codes relating to the culture of human survival? What do \u201ccreating\u201d and \u201cwriting\u201d mean in this process?<\/p>\n

In our driftless and confused society, the writings of Yangjiang Group (\u9633\u6c5f\u7ec4\u5408) are frequently interpreted as iconic metaphors reflecting our everyday reality, hinting at the unpredictability and mystery of life. An important medium in the survival and passing down of Chinese culture, calligraphy is ever-present in the artistic practice of the Yangjiang Group, combining with all types of disparate social behaviors. The collective fermentation of our daily wine, tea, and language across time, then, has become the overarching context in which this calligraphy exists. The content of these calligraphic works, rather than being merely a repetition of calligraphic aesthetics, are frequently a coalescence of the observation and penetration of the complete interactive process between human behavior and the world, distilled into a mantra. These everyday writings, completed at different points in time, converge into a landscape, a space resembling a stele forest. From the space of the Dong Pavilion, the content of this calligraphy gradually becomes simply the \u201cstate\u201d of our tim<\/p>\n

\"\u6842\u6d77\u7891\u6797\"Guihai Steele Forest. Reference image. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u4ed9\u5973\u4e4b\u5c4b\"Prehistoric carvings left on \u201cDomus de Janas\u201d stone structures in Sardenia, Italy.<\/span>
\n Image: Hu Fang<\/span><\/p>\n

Another type of writing that is presented comes from Italian artist Michele Ciacciofera. The artist\u2019s Library of the Encoded Time<\/em> is rife with both urgency and yearning toward languages that are facing imminent extinction. In Ciacciofera\u2019s eyes, each individual\u2019s identity is forged from the history of our predecessors, written and narrated to us through a system of imaginative symbols. Within this system, at the same time, there exists a process of constant rewriting. His deep interest in fossils can almost be interpreted as a metaphor: creation is a complicated and organic process of evolution.<\/p>\n

Here, the energy presented by calligraphy transforms the space into a place that invites reading and dancing \u2013 the dance of thought manifests as a physical dance, your footsteps moving upon the platform of the space, light and heavy, swift and slow, propelled by strands of feeling and thought.<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

When our gaze extends even farther into the distance, the sound of trickling water seems to indicate a shift in the setting, and in the body\u2019s orientation. In the recent Visionary World in a Changing State of Mind<\/em> (\u5fc3\u80fd\u8f6c\u5883) series, Zheng Guogu (\u90d1\u56fd\u8c37) places the observational center of energy at the \u201cheart chakra.\u201d Located at the axis of the \u201cchakra system,\u201d the \u201cheart chakra\u201d is generally considered to be the source of emotional energy. Zheng views the expansion of the \u201cheart chakra\u201d to be a process resulting from an individual\u2019s correspondence with different settings, and suggests that by using one\u2019s heart to correspond with art\u2019s various forms, the viewer will undergo an evolution in their mental state, leading to the opening up of new dimensions of personal perception. Alongside these explorations of energy, in Visionary World in a Changing State of Mind<\/em>, Zheng is also concerned with placing paintings within types of everyday environments, as well as placing scenes depicted in paintings into the real environment, such as bringing willows and flowing streams into the space of Mirrored Gardens<\/em>. The sound of the water and the voice of the heart are placed in mutual reflection and harmony, through which the possibilities of mutual transformation between one\u2019s mental state and the environment can be explored.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2165\" The water scene constructed by Zheng Guogu in \u201cLiao Garden.\u201d Image provided by the artist.<\/span><\/p>\n

This type of experimentation uses one\u2019s own self as the medium, through which one experiences flows of energy that cannot be articulated with language. And, in the end, the endeavor invites other entities to participate in testifying to this experience. Perhaps we are merely intertwining particles in this quantum world, ceaselessly searching for a vector that can be the trajectory for our life energy.<\/p>\n

When twilight descends, humans slow down their pace, the traces of their paths gaining clarity and dynamism. When we casually shut a book, we continue nonetheless on our autumnal journey, all of us unintentional visitors who have entered a book, the morning light fading, pulling farther and farther away.<\/p>\n

(\u201cSilent journeys\u201d group, Mirror Gardens\u00a0)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Daily Opening Time:
\n11:00 \u2013 17:00, Wednesday to Sunday
\nClosed on Mondays, Tuesdays<\/p>\n

Address: Mirrored Gardens, Si Hai Ma Shu, Hualong Agriculture Grand View Garden (\u5316\u9f99\u519c\u4e1a\u5927\u89c2\u56ed\uff0c\u56db\u6d77\u9a6c\u672f), Panyu District, Guangzhou
\nTel: 020-31043759
\nEmail:\u00a0mail@mirroredgardens.art<\/p>\n

Warm Reminders:
\n\u201cGatherings\u201d in similar forms will recur at the Mirror Gardens in the daily process with no set schedules, we kindly ask you to follow our \u201c\u4ea4\u53c9\u5c0f\u5f84 (forking paths)\u201d public WeChat account and Mirror Garden\u2019s alternate WeChat account to receive updates in the future.<\/p>\n