GUAN WEI UNFAMILIAR LAND
16 June - 23 July 2006
Unfamiliar Land [2006]
CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS PROJECTS SA 2006 Project 5 presents Guan Wei - his first solo exhibition in Adelaide.
Captivated by Australia's unique sense of space, extreme environment and profound cultural history, but dissatisfied with the limitations of 'official' (colonial) history books, Guan Wei believes that a positive future relies on understanding the past. With informed socio-political and art history awareness, Guan explores obscured historical perspectives, in pursuit of, as he articulates, "a kind of liberation, a freed imagination... to drive ahead our consciousness, to rebuild our spiritual values", offering a holistic notion of the past, present and future.
In this current 'simulation era', our lives are filled with symbolic illusions; Guan suggests that "all realities can be reinterpreted in a simulated, surreal dimension, substituting the real world", allowing the prevalent yet dangerous pattern (especially in the midst of terrorism hype) of fear and hatred eclipsing sympathy and compassion, "destroying ourselves and ruining our lives even before the real terrorist's attack". Using his rich cultural repertory of symbols, Guan's works transcend the narrow space of the so-called 'true history' and express a kind of "epic history", simultaneously humorous and conveying magnanimity and ethical concerns.
Born 1957 in Beijing, China and arriving in Australia in 1989, Guan Wei currently lives and works in Sydney. His 2003 Australia Council funded Greene Street Studio residency in New York was pivotal in his career, resulting in major works dealing with the 'war on terror'. Guan has held 37 solo exhibitions, including the Survey Nesting, or the Art of Idleness 1989-1999, Musuem of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999), and has featured in numerous significant Australian and international events - Third Asia-Pacific Triennial, Brisbane (1999); Man and Space, Kwangju Biennale (2000); and Face Up: Contemporary Art from Australia, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin (2003-04).
Guan Wei's forthcoming major exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Other Histories: Guan Wei's Fables for a Contemporary World (October 2006-January 2007), will coincide with the publication of a Craftsman House monograph on his work, and Echo, a solo exhibition at Sherman Galleries, Sydney.
Guan wei will be in Adelaide from Monday 12 June to Saturday 17 June - amongst presented works he will be painting directly onto the gallery walls up to day of opening. Catalogue essay by eminent Australian writer Nicholas Jose.
Guan Wei is represented by Sherman Gallery, Sydney and ARC One Gallery, Melbourne
Catalogue Essay FANTASTIC COSMOGRAPHIES (1.5MB pdf) by Nicholas Jose