BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//EVDB//www.eventful.com//EN VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:Han Lei 'Swamp' in Beijing\, China at C5 Art - Eventful BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20080921T000000 DTEND:20081026T000000 DTSTAMP:20080908T024516Z SUMMARY:Han Lei 'Swamp' DESCRIPTION: 'Swamp' New Works of Han Lei Exhibition Period: 22nd Sep tember\, 2008 – 26th October\, 2008 Opening Reception: 21st September\ , 2008 / Sunday / 8pm – 11pm Venue: C5 Art C5 Art is presenting [Swamp ] - Han Lei's Solo Exhibition in September\, which features his new wo rks of oil painting\, photograph and installation. Swamp\, the latest work by Han Lei\, continues a subject he has mastered so well: the ove rlap and reflection of history and reality. This time\, he makes the a rtwork step down from the frame and fits together real objects (or rea dy-made objects) so as to convey his idea about different spaces and t ime periods. Han Lei once stated: “these ready-made objects are what I abhorred. They have played a certain role in the past but the role en dowed on them is unreal. You can even say that they are totally change d into something more superficial than they really are.” Hidden behind compounds of irrelevant objects is Han's ambition to extend his art b eyond the frame. Plenty of found objects are chosen to complete his pe rsonal brooding about history. Irrationality and sarcasm gradually str eam out as history and now\, to a certain degree\, intercourse.Picking Flowers of Happiness in a Stranger's Garden -- About Swamp\, a recent work by Han Lei By Zheng Naiming An old soul is hidden inside Han Lei . This soul perpetually leads the artist to see a mundane world from a fresh perspective\, through which history seems to carry bizarre sent iments. Although historical nostalgia is not the type of scenery that Han Lei intends to rely on\, it enables him to see fantasy in reality and allows him to find his footing in the real world. In the dim light of history\, two time periods\, the past and the present\, overlap. T he oId in the past is replaced by the alter ego in the present\, givin g rise to sarcasm\, irony\, scorn and even traces of a gloom that are hard to dismiss. One of the main impressions left on me by Han Lei's w orks is his use of color. Whether shot in color or black-and-white\, h is photos capture the shades of time. Brimming with time\, the color i s not smoky yellow\, but dark\, hinting at a gloomy mindset. Most of u s tend to extract the coordinates of time periods in his works accordi ng to the subject. In my opinion\, the subject matter is merely a vehi cle rather than a set beginning for the elaboration of a story. All th e subjects Han Lei chooses suggest that he is actually trying to sort out an approach towards time. His hesitation and bewilderment are drip ping with remade scenes belonging to the past\, a past that loses its old nature and seems ridiculously off-line for a modern artistic vehic le. As a well-known master of the subtle effect of displaced space-tim e\, Han Lei now adds in ironic scorn and produces vivid and rich works that the transcend superficial ones made by those who try to rejuvena te dead materials. His artworks remind me of the slight pain of removi ng a scab. Under the circumstances of socialism\, contemporary artists may share an anti-social impulse and a habit for mocking the politica l regime. However\, artistic expression of this type is hard to be cat egorized as a type of long-term retrospection. Usually\, it serves jus t as a record of evolution\, for elements of space-time and circumstan ce matter too much in it. In the case of Han Lei\, however\, his artwo rks are never meant to be records of a certain experience. As I stated above\, he tries to sort out a way to look at reality by making use o f history. It is not because he could not comprehend reality but becau se it exceeds the human ability to imagine and accept different values in various phases as the background rapidly shifts. In a sense\, the biggest social issue today is not those propagandized socialist focuse s but a new value system that undergoes rapid materialization and reve rsal. This is shown more blankly in A Young man from Chifeng\, a photo in 2006. Again\, Han Lei chose as his model an ordinary man with a co ld expression and dramatic strength. Dressed in a People's Liberation Army uniform\, and in spite of all the badges and medals he wears on h is uniform\, the young man stares out indifferently. On this boy\, the decaying shadow and glory of history become like cheap marks that can be removed anytime. Within a different time and space\, so-called ide als and great sentiments transform into a boldly ridiculous combinatio n. The aloofness of the boy has undoubtedly catalyzed the displacement of old customs and new mindsets. I appreciate the fact that Han Lei h as lent a heart's-eye view to the dialectic about old times\, which re minds me of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Little Prince\, one of my favor ite novels. In this novel\, the fox presented a most interesting remar k to the little prince: you cannot see clearly unless with you look wi th the heart. What matters most cannot be seen with eyes. When it come s to Han Lei's art\, it makes great sense\, too. Swamp\, the latest wo rk by the artist\, continues a subject he has mastered so well: the ov erlap and reflection of history and reality. This time\, he makes the artwork step down from the frame and fits together real objects (or re ady-made objects) so as to convey his idea about different spaces and time periods. Han Lei once stated: “these ready-made objects are what I abhorred. They have played a certain role in the past but the role e ndowed on them is unreal. You can even say that they are totally chang ed into something more superficial than they really are.” About this r emark\, I would like to make clear one point. He mentioned that these ready-made objects were what he abhorred yet they had played a certain role in the past. In other words\, objects listed by the artist are m undane items with social functions. No matter whether they appeared in his life or not\, their looks and references make sense to him in tha t they can probably be interpreted in a new way once they break free f rom their former space and time. For example\, Han Lei adopted as an e lement the enlarger that he used a lot in the past. The enlarger was a n apparatus that he used to rely on to blow up black-and-white photos. Its new role as raw material suggests that he may now have a differen t attitude towards black-and-white photography. In the face of the enl arger\, now void of any real use\, the viewer expects at least to appr eciate its form. However\, this precise machine is decorated with horr ibly vulgar plastic hairpins\, plastic birds\, wood inlaid with fake d iamonds and a stethoscope. Han Lei told me that he used to calculate t ime by feeling his own heartbeats instead of using a timer when he enl arged a picture\, and a stethoscope is designated to calculate heartbe ats. When a stethoscope and an enlarger are grouped together\, their c onsecutive references break up in no time. It's a ridiculous picture. Meanwhile\, the enlarger joined by vulgarly bright elements can be tre ated as a metaphor for one's embarrassment when his or her original id eas are interfered with and ruined by reality. Han Lei is trying to re locate –- in a new space-time -- objects belonging to the past so that their old symbolic meanings can be dissolved. Moreover\, numerous vul gar items\, apparently in conflict\, are scattered among them\, revers ing traditional aesthetics and polluting their purity. The artist is u sing machinery to voice his sorrows and his pains regarding the disadv antaged situation for art production. What is the use of a heartbeat i f the stethoscope\, designed for precise calculation\, is abused? No m atter how well an artist is equipped\, his heart would stop lifeless i f innocent conceptions of art are invaded by vulgarity. If that happen s\, the stethoscope becomes a blade ruthlessly cutting the heart open. With ready-made objects\, Han Lei continues with his photographic log ic. Among other things\, the viewer may nod with a smile about the soc ial connotations implanted in these objects. Take his sharp work with nunchaku -– or nunchucks –- and also chord as raw material. Bruce Lee\ , the late Asian star\, had played as a master of nunchucks in his mov ies\, establishing the weapon's mythological role as way to beat power . Jay Chow\, sometimes referred to as the little heavenly king of Asia n Pop music\, had also released a hit entitled “Nunchaku”. This weapon is now used for formalized shows and even in a playful way. Such a si ght will definitely ruin the long-held imagination of those who were w illing to preserve it as part of a tradition. For the artist\, nunchuc ks and chord used to have simple references but now he turns a compoun d of both into a singular symbol of social commotion. Furthermore\, he adds in a gaudy\, fanciful bird made of plastic\, representing the pr evailing mentality of tumult and deepening the sarcasm embodied in thi s artwork. In another instance\, Han Lei combines the sculpture of a s tunt man performing a headstand on one hand and a watch in which Chair man Mao can be seen waving with the spring wound. After the artist man ipulates them\, two ready-made objects\, seemingly irreconcilable\, ra diate with irony. After all\, in certain circumstances\, aren't politi cal figures similar to stunt men in their intention to catch the publi c eye? Does such a circumstance promise any truth? Probably not. In Pu ppet\, another installation of ready-made objects\, a ship propeller i s made new and brilliant. On its top are ornaments of vulgar accessori es. The propeller strikes the audience as visually unharmonious. Besid es\, a photo is hung on the wall behind\, featuring a fat boy with a p uppet on his hand. Once again\, a cold hard prop is used to suggest th e domination of artificial manipulation. Hidden behind compounds of ir relevant objects is Han's ambition to extend his art beyond the frame. Plenty of found objects are chosen to complete his personal brooding about history. Irrationality and sarcasm gradually stream out as histo ry and now\, to a certain degree\, intercourse. Intriguingly\, all of the chosen ready-made objects fit traditional aesthetics. When they wa lk out of their own backgrounds\, however\, their qualities of old day s begin to disappear\, an action that undoubtedly strikes the artist a s vivid\, wonderful\, disgusting yet extremely exciting. Similarly\, H an Lei's easel art conveys an atmosphere of the times analogous to his installations of found objects. Comparatively speaking\, the former s eems to return to the format of 1950s and 1960s landscape photography or paintings from even earlier period that were made for export. Withi n this borrowed framework\, Han Lei refers to ink-painting techniques and billboards\, and he produces an effect similar to that of template painting during the Cultural Revolution. In dealing with content\, Ha n Lei applies heavy dark colors on populous patterns and terms\, showi ng that time could bury any life\, in its heyday or not\, just as the marsh does. In comparison with installation\, Han Lei's easel art has a more distinctive narrative character. In terms of visual expression\ , it boasts perfect foreshadowing. Besides\, its plot is more complete while installation of found objects tends to be powerless in the abse nce of visual weight. Despite all this\, Han Lei's installation-combin es enable the audience to comprehend the alienation he felt about hist ory\, which\, on the other hand\, extends the capacity of the medium a nd gives us access to Han Lei's unique perspective of spaces. Of cours e\, Han Lei's art does not cling to nostalgia. From Kaifeng in Henan p rovince\, to Beijing\, what is measurable is a distance in terms of sp ace. But as time flows by\, the artist's inner reactions –- in the fac e of crumbling values –- denies measurement. Mental ordeals in the pro cess of environmental alienation may have enabled the artist to direct his own view inward towards time\, both old and new\, and towards the impact from outside. It also explains why his artworks give out a lig ht sense of sorrow\, attributed to his personal experiences and to his regret about a lost paradise. He is able to see the tricks played by time on emotional beings in this age and its power to make shallow wha t could have been deepened. As the environment evolves\, eternity has become an obstacle that can no way be justified\, for even oceans are drying out and stones are rotting. How can one pluck the flower of con tentment from a stranger's garden? In the work of Han Lei\, loneliness strikes a sharp pose. \n LOCATION:C5 Art @ No 5 Xi Wu Street San Li TunChayang District, Beijin g, Beijing 100027 China SEQUENCE:1220841916 UID:E0-001-015165440-1 URL:http://eventful.com/E0-001-015165440-1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR