Platform China (HK) proudly presents ‘ Dear, Why Freedom’ on the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong and Chai Wan Mei Art & Design Festival 2015. Featuring works by Chinese artists Jin Shan and Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, “Dear, Why Freedom” considers and creates a visual construction that both engages and diverts meaning, creating a shocking visual sensation of freedom.
The concept of freedom is grounded in the realities we live in. Whether we are free or not it depends on how we conceive and experience it. The interpretations of freedom vary under different social systems, which reflect the multiplicity of the concept. Sometimes, the act of freedom can be misleading, it oscillates between passion and repression, what makes a person free could lead another to chaos. Whilst we are governed by morality in a civilized society, is such governance of behaviour an absolute restraint of personal freedom or a repression of humanity?
Titled after the name of two featured artworks ‘Dear’ and ‘Why freedom’, respectively Sun Yuan & Peng Yu’s highly technological installation together with Jin Shan’s newly realized video installation, the exhibition attempts to question the meaning of a concept. Jin Shan creates absurd and unexpected scenarios to reveal human’s desire of being controlled; through this he subtly explores the definition of freedom and its value derived. The meticulous settings by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu present collision and conflict in a physical space in something of the manner of an out-of-control child, revealing the hidden scenarios and structures of our daily life. When the audience enters the exhibition space one should feel its impact and violence both visually and psychologically. Through the interaction and dialogue of the two artworks, the show transmits a profound sense of inconvenience and discomfort which embodies the multiple facets and form of freedom.
In the context of contemporary art, the exhibition does not hold an absolute view on the concept of freedom. By confronting the artists’ ideas in a physical space, the viewer is invited to decipher the concept freely, establishing his own language to interpret and react.
About the artists
Jin Shan’s (b.1976, Zhejiang, China) creative works’ essence is based around writing, which is closely intertwined with the idea of a "narrative". Using this method of "narrative", the themes, which he is interested to discuss, mainly tie in with individual experience and contemporary history through the use of video, photography, sound, painting, and other media.
Sun Yuan (b.1972, Beijing) & Peng Yu (b.1974, Heilongjiang) are two of China's most controversial conceptual artists, renowned for working with extreme materials such as human fat tissue, live animals, and baby cadavers to deal with issues of perception, death, and the human condition. Born in 1972 and 1974 respectively, the pair has been collaborating in Beijing since 2000.