Opening along with the sunset as a site-and-time-specific installation, on this Sunday, 8th of October, at 5:30pm, Institute for Provocation is pleased to present Fan Xi’s solo project, A Scene · Being. For this presentation at Black Sesame Space, Fan Xi attempts to blur the boundary between artworks and display space, casting aside the pressure of ‘sense of artwork’ and the sophistication of an exhibition experience. Instead, she is dedicated to capture the constantly changing and vanishing relationship between human, temporality, space, material, and image. A ‘scene’ here refers to both a site as well as a panorama, that is associated with a variety of dynamic relations.
In Fan Xi’s works, particularly the series of All Beings, the photoflash functions as an extended human organ that captures the time, and the object beyond the visible range of a naked eye. The scratch, fluidity, reflection, and solarization are a series of disturbing factors that tears apart the unknown that is hidden in darkness, seeking access to transcend the linear time and physical narrative, which would allow the viewer to access beneath the set up of an image. This is a kind of control between keenness and violence. In this exhibition, Fan Xi will continue her ‘manipulation’ of light by integrating it with the space. This methodology could be considered as an externalization of modern photography, in which light plays a crucial role of imaging and sets the conduct of the spatial experience. Therefore, it is not only the presentation of images but also a process of generating them, with the engagement of man and light. In this way, images are no longer understood as a medium for the reproduction of reality, but as a field of carrying changeabilities that requires the agency of light to liberate their vitality.
Time and Location 2017.10.8 - 2017.10.18 Opening party: 8th October 5:30 PM Institute for Provocation @ Black Sesame Space Heizhima Hutong 13, Dongcheng District, Beijing
About the artist
Fan Xi (born 1984, in Shandong, China), is an artist based in Beijing. Graduated from Sculpture Department of Central Academy of Fine Art (Beijing) in 2009, Her works in varied media includes photograph and video projects.
Her recent shows include the “Art form Beijing” (2017), S.E Gallery, Bergen; “New Photography Choice”(2017), la villa des arts, Paris; “Distanciation” Dawan Art Foundation (2017), Paris; “Reduction of Image” (2016), Yang Gallery, Beijing; “We May Have Met Before-Chinese Contemporary Photography” (2015), Foam Amsterdam, Amsterdam; “Through the Body: Lens-based works by Contemporary Chinese Women Artists Through the Body: Lens-based works by Contemporary Chinese Women Artists” (2014), the University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto; “The Black Dwarf/Part 2” (2014), Star Gallery, Beijing, China; “The Black Dwarf/Part 1” (2013), Star Gallery, Beijing, China; “Tomorrow’s Party-Contemporary Art Exhibition” (2014), UCCA, Beijing, China; “A Miscellany of Arts—The Visual Rhetoric of the Young Generation” (2013), Jin Ji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China
