Growing up in Taiping, a small village about 200 km west of Shanghai, meant Lu Xinjian at all times had chores to do across the household farm. One day, a classmate requested Xinjian a philosophical query: “What is your dream?”
He instantly replied: “I want to leave the village and go to the city.” His buddy was shocked. All they knew was the village and its acquainted environment. What would Xinjian do within the metropolis? “It was strange for people in my little village to think about leaving. but I was adamant about going away,” says Xinjian.
On March 16, an exhibition on the VHC gallery in Koregaon Park will showcase simply how far Xinjian managed to journey. Titled In DNA, the exhibition options works made by Xinjian which might be chicken’s eye views of cities rendered in his language of design incorporating traces, circles and different geometrical patterns that talk the maze via which city life meanders ceaselessly. The different artist on the present, Zhang Ji, seems to be at non secular structure, together with Indian temples that he discovered on-line.
“Using a syringe to patiently apply as many as 120 tubes on a canvas, Zhang’s work often resembles bas-relief sculptures. He references motifs from religious architecture, specifically mosques, synagogues and churches from Europe and the Middle East,” says the curatorial observe.
Xinjian’s works take a look at a number of cities of India, a rustic that he has but to go to. Starting with Google maps to grasp the format of a place, he reads on the historical past and tales related to the realm. Works on Delhi focuses on the roads and constructions that radiate from the India Gate and the clusters that encompass Red Fort, whereas the Kolkata work is almost bifurcated by a highway into thickly populated elements. The works emphasise how intently individuals dwell in cities, which might be a metaphor for the world. “The world right now is a bit chaotic. It is sad to read the news. I don’t paint political images. I like culture and harmony. I aim to make works that are always energetic, colourful and reflect the history of the cities and its people. I hope this will inspire people to see things in a positive light,” says Xinjian.
For Zhang, faith is the true cognition of the world that historic civilization continues to this present day. “Living in today’s modern civilization, in the secular encirclement, religious architecture seems to be a sacred and mysterious place. The decoration of religious architecture is like hiding some kind of code, continuously emitting wonderful aesthetic energy,” he says.
He, too, has not been to India however discovered its historical past greater than 10 years in the past. “I searched for a lot of ancient Indian temples on the internet. I chose the patterns containing strong aesthetic energy as the material I created, and then used my method to create these works,” he says of his works on show.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 14-03-2024 at 12:42 IST
