JINGART 2019  |  B11

VIP Preview

2019.05.30 14:00-20:00

2019.05.31 13:00-20:00

Public Days

2019.06.01 11:00-17:00 

2019.06.02 11:00-17:00

Venue |  Beijing Exhibition Center No.135 XiZhiMen Outer Street

Tong Kunniao (b. 1990, China)

"Installation and Landscape" series of paintings:

This group of paintings depicts the unequal but harmonious scenes between Chinese ancient paintings and installations. Tong Kunniao see the installation as a role in the ancient paintings. It is like a stubborn structural body, as a central protagonist in the painting. And it is like an intruder breaks the balance that should belong to the picture. However, the paintings construct an obvious primary and secondary relationship, and form a binary opposition. The vacancies and imbalances in the painting may be precisely his understanding and expression of the present harmony in daily life.Tong Kunniao tried to convey a picture of balance and harmony. In the process of creation, it was found that the gap between the vacancy and the replacing was the “best medicine" to fill the picture. But the harmonious picture is also faced with empty and lack of power. Because, I consider the installation as a temporary and formed role may be reinstalled at any time, and it is also facing disintegration and departure at any time.

Balance Birds Series of Works

These balanced bird sculptures are placed on a high fulcrum. They seem to have their own identity, and they are fearless but helplessly balance their bodies. They are looking for reasons for existence in contradictions and freedoms, navigating the directions in the clues of confusion and lack, and locating a series of uncertain answers. It seems that nothing has been found, they are just waiting quietly, thinking and floating.The “Bird indefinite" series works by using the principle of physical balance to create dangerous and stagnant bird sculptures in space, and the works are unbalanced but reasonable. The structure brings psychological contradictions and stability. The seemingly balance of everything is actually a dangerous establishment process. In the process of pursuing balance, we must let a fart play in the air.

Psychologist F. Heider believes: "Humans generally have a need for balance and harmony. Once people have an imbalance and disharmony in their understanding, there will be psychological anxiety and tension, which will transform their cognitive structure into a balanced and harmonious direction."

Each of the birds reflect their identity in their names and shapes: A Dingy Lady, A Brother with Half Feather and Half Hair, etc are still a combination of abandoned ready-made products and metal structures, but it lacks the artificial mechanical devices used by Tong Kunniao. It no longer slams into a mighty sound, but only uses the principle of physical balance: establishing a contradiction between danger and stability. The birds float in the air, showing their heavy but flexible body, presenting their freedom. They stay in place, positioning a series of uncertain answers, navigating in the clues of confusion and lack, although still in place, still strive to fly........