Information
Zhang Yixin
Opening Reception：2016.8.6 4:00 pm
Duration：2016.8.6 – 2016.9.18
Venue：Tong Gallery+projects Gallery, No. 2, Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, D06, Middle Second Street, District D, 798 Art District
On August 6, 2016, TongGallery+Projects will present you with the new exhibition "Zhang Xinyi: icon". This is the first solo exhibition of artist Zhang Xinyi. The title of the exhibition "icon" is not just an icon or advanced programming language with the attributes of the Internet era. More meaning is that Zhang Xinyi expands a series of symbolised image experiments based on the current visual efficiency. As a special participant in the exhibition, You Yang elaborated on Zhang Xinyi's creation in his "Sheng Sheng Image".
Image of Prosperous
Text/You Yang
The image declares the trust, dependence and expectation of visual efficiency, thereby developing its own material system. At the same time, it is given different types of functions, such as aesthetic deduction, information transmission, civilisation evidence, or the expression of a specific social meaning. However, what we often ignore is that the meaning of images in different times is essentially shaped by specific social relations at the same time, whether for the author, the audience, or the image ontology. In other words, the visual value of the image is not enough to transcend the shackles of time and become immortal; but in the filtering of time, the body of the image is moulded and elastic at the same time to cope with the transfer of supply and demand in different periods.
What is the essence of the image? What is the visual example of painting creation?
Light, colours and lines make up most of the images we can see today. The artist's research on images is reflected in the pursuit of details and integrity, as well as the tension of content and form. These visual practises are read and explained by the audience through the exhibition. The audience hopes that these visible objects will breed the mystery of whether or not, and through experience, believe that they have gained aesthetic pleasure or some knowledge, be baptised by watching, and be self-sufficient through association.
Zhang Xinyi's creation began in 2014, and her work dimension is beyond the universal artist studio. On the one hand, she continues the tradition of painters, carefully designing dots, lines and surface compositions on the easel of the studio. Unlike her painting teacher, Apple's computer is also her easel -- considerable visual design work is done on the computer screen. On the other hand, on the vast Internet platform, her emoji expressions are highly disseminated among the younger generation of social media users. According to the artist's own opinion: "emoji is an image that we see every day. It directly participates in our communication and expression. The frequency of use is amazing. This stylised small icon affects our aesthetic orientation and reading habits."
Emoji is also a way to experience visual efficiency, which even divergerates geometrically through the fingers of WeChat users. In terms of communication effect, it is far more than relying on art exhibitions in physical space. Zhang Xinyi continued this visualisation to this "icon" exhibition. She restored (or expanded) the detailed image into a symbolic image.
Since the Middle Ages, every painting contains a story, and the inner unity of painting is description. The audience set by the painter is the painter's friends or other painters. The audience set by the painter's patron is a pro-life. Whether in Rome or Byzantium, the patron is a religious agency, so the narrative in the painting aims to convey religious stories to the audience, especially in the face of areas where text education is not popular. . The own attributes of these two types of audiences determine whether they are obsessed with painting, details or stories. And these two directions are not always complementary at the moment of viewing - curiosity about details is often weakened by the readability of the content. However, as the creator of painting, I consider the vision of my peers more. Until the 18th century, after a long history of painting, painters were famous for emphasising precision to present authenticity. During the Renaissance, it reached the peak of art masters copying nature, but what about after that? The autonomy of artistic concepts has gradually shifted from infatuation with the details of techniques to thinking about form. There is not only one way between the reproduction of visual physical attributes and the real world. Among the possibilities of art, it is best allowed to use new ways to prove or experiment with this relationship.
Historical paintings have become public image resources. Who is the reformer and developer of these resources? Picasso's 1932 painting "Dream" is a response to Angel; or 1957's "Maid of the Palace" is an interpretation of Velaz's "Gong'e"; in the 1960s, Pop artists realised that commercial image is a treasure house of images; today, Emoji emoji has been replaced to some extent. The text on WeChat. On the one hand, Zhang Xin misappropriates the mythical image of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and on the other hand, cites the classic images of art history (similar to Picasso, she prefers female images), and uses poster-style line composition, bright colours, and elaborate and ridicul titles to create a knowledge that is not subject to the past and is close to the current Internet life. Closely related scene.
Zhang Xinyi felt that the visual effect preceded the text and carried out a series of meticulous experiments. For traditional painters, the creative logic begins with the image to achieve the similarity first, and then postpone the change of the image. Zhang Xinyi's working method unfolds from the opposite direction: she first chooses the highest-ranked "classic painting" image on the Internet, and then constantly simplifies, removes the details, light and expressions of brush strokes by using basic lines to the original image, and finally leaving only the plot, lines and artificial colours. Although Mona Lisa's smile disappeared, the image continued to stimulate the audience's emotions. No matter how simple the image is, it is not a simple reality. The image returns to the most basic institutional relationship, and the relationship between various visual elements and functions is still clear, thus maintaining the self-discipline of the image. Subsequently, the system not only built the image itself, but also participated as a part of the audience's reaction.
After Pop, the flattened image is not only an extension of life, but also redefining life, urban culture, and even art itself.
In the post-Internet era, the viewing mode and rhythm of users (or viewers) have been firmly domesticated by mobile terminal devices. Today, with a large amount of picture information, what are our expectations for images or macro-art history? Are you still looking forward to a summary of knowledge? Although many people are used to trying to express the perception of images in words, when we stand in the real exhibition, we only feel the rapid movement of images and drastic changes in emotions, not to mention the switching moments in the massive information of social media. Perhaps in the end, we are parallel on two roads: today's prosperous images encourage us to enter spiritual life; at the same time, the images verifies the symptoms of this era - that is, all viewing is fleeting, only hurried experience, but unable to form an effective perception.
