Black Box Theatre
LI YOUSONG

 


Black Box Theatre


2023.11.18 - 2023.12.31


Artist: Yousong LI
Venue: D06, Middle 2nd St., 798 Art Zone, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, BJ

Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10:30-18:30

 


Tong Gallery+Projects is honored to announce that the solo-exhibition Black Box Theatre will be open from November 18th (Sat), 2023 to December 31th (Sun), 2023, during which the artists Yousong LI's latest artworks will be presented. Look forward to seeing you there!
" I watched the acrobatic performance from the music pool directly below the stage because I was the son of an acrobatic band conductor. The stage had a permanent charm for me, and my favorite Chaplin and Italian director Fellini also grew up in a circus."

Drama is an impression that lingers when watching Li Yousong's works, and this impression is even more pronounced in the new exhibition a year later. However, commensurate with the role of this stage designer, the focus of the drama is on the stage it sets up, rather than the characters it performs. In one scene of this exhibition performance, a blindfolded young man stumbles out from a high stage on the city tower. To this end, Li Yousong built a huge city wall, decorated with artillery, keys, stairs, and a framed window that allowed the audience to peek inside the wall. Here, the audience will be forced to make a choice: to peep at the beautiful human body inside the city wall, or to worry about the danger of the young man falling.

In the other scenes, the setting becomes a source of hidden danger. The mushroom cloud that rises in the distance, the meteor that pierces the twilight and falls to the earth, the maze of tall buildings that cannot be seen from the bottom... However, the main characters who occupy the audience's attention are calm in appearance, as if they are dolls placed everywhere on the stage. Behind them, the omen of danger stood, standing in the deepest part of the stage, like a quiet giant beast. In the tug of war for the audience's emotions, the theater gradually becomes the show itself, and the stage designer can cunningly declare that: The trick has been successful.

Note: The Black Box Theater, which is usually painted black, square or rectangular, hence its name. The Black Box Theater originated from the avant-garde art movement in the United States in the early 20th century, and almost any large room can be "transformed" into a Black Box Theater with the assistance of painting and curtains. The seating in the theater is not fixed, and the audience can sit in a circular or any other configuration that the director wants, making the black box theater an easy choice for artists and performers to come into contact with. Ironically, a "white box" can also be a black box - Peter Brooke used the concept of a black box in Shakespeare's groundbreaking production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1970, but used white walls and floors.