OV Gallery is proud to present Retina a collection of new work by prominent Beijing artist Bai Yiluo. Bai was inspired by conceptual pioneer Marcel Duchamp and his concept of “Retinal Art” – art whose main purpose it to be pleasing to the eye but lacks any conceptual rigor.
Though Bai’s work is certainly aesthetically pleasing, his oeuvre is backed by strong conceptual underpinnings. He is well known for his social critique – his early work “People” uses images of passport-sized photos to explore the idea of the collective and he often contrasts images of working-class people, with symbols of power (pompousarmchairs in “Sofa” and jade funerary garments in “Fate”). In this way he creates a kind of tension between, the elite and the common, between those who have benefitted from China’s economic miracle, and those who have merely supplied the manpower.
In this new series of work, Bai explores ideas of surface and substance, interior and exterior. These works, seen for the first time in China, also employ photo assemblage, but this time the photos are culled from popular magazines. In “Monster 1” he covers a round globe-like form with images of luxury watches. In “Monster 2”he has constructed a spit – the kind used for roasting pig and lamb – and has affixed human faces to it. Here Bai explores the idea of time, desire and materialism as a kind of torturer of mankind, “At first man discovered time, now he has become its slave,” says Bai.
Background
Bai was born in Luoyang, Henan in 1968 and his interest in class issues is informed by his personal experience of working in a in a tractor factory. Bai’s entry into contemporary art came through photography, when he and a friend bought a camera together and taught themselves how to use it. The young artist eventually found his way to Beijing, where he worked as an assistant for Ai Weiwei. It was working for Ai in Caochangdi where Bai created his seminal photo-calligraphy works, “Xia”, “Cursive”, “Kai Script” and Six Couplets” – photographs of flies arranged to look like calligraphy scrolls.
Besides his photo-based work Bai, has also produced a series of sculptures “Spring and Autumn 1 & 2”. “Spring and Autumn 1” features a tree made out of farm implements, pitchforks and hoes, while #2 is a boat filled with bones. Here Bai conjures up ideas of Samsara （轮回）and the Chinese agricultural calendar (24个节气) – a series of dates tied to nature which prescribe the best times for planting rice seedlings and harvesting crops. The bones help round out this natural life cycle, signifying mortality and the return of nutrients back into the soil.
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