Control group: In a prism-like sight
Text：Junyao Chen

The curatorial process has always been based on the problems of the moment and the constant fluidity of the situation around us. In the past few years, the chaos and disorder that has pervaded both the distant world and our surroundings have overturned long-held optimistic expectations of social development and left us the situation as an unfinished crossword puzzle, leaving numerous fragmentary gaps between the black nodes that unfold the threads and questions of everyday life and cultural communities. They stretch, reorganize and intertwine, weaving a jagged web of that pounce on our turbulent lives. In The Rise of the Network Society (1996), Manuel Castells suggests that space is the manifestation of society, a manifestation that is not a reflection or a reproduction of society but a direct equivalent of society itself - space is society. According to Castells, “space is society” provides a more concrete field for us to observe society, allowing us to build experimental models and observe this exhibition as a “control group”.

Variables

The artists in this exhibition come from Europe, East Asia and South America, and the exhibition presents six sample artists' practices in painting, sculpture and mixed media over the last two years. These works were created around 2020, when the effects of pandemics, local wars and secondary disasters became a catalyst for disconnecting global flows and rethinking human values. It was reflected in the artists' work during this period, creating a control group for the production of the contemporary art content concerning real-life experiences; in contrast to the broader social context beyond the control group, the exhibition In comparison to the wider social context outside the control group, the linear time and the continuously fermenting social environment outside the exhibition space become obvious variables, and the experimental group, as opposed to the control group, is then established outside the exhibition space. In this set of contrasting relationships, time and social processes become constant constants and allow the two groups of samples produced within and outside the space to reveal other truths about reality in contrast to each other.

Prism/Viewshed

A standard white rectangular space provide as a symbolically clear boundary for this experimental process, abruptly spanning the wall structure at the space's diagonal, transforming into the elephant in the room, difficult to ignore but impossible to cross. The clear diagonal divisions correspond to the prism's structure and form, allowing the viewer to easily adjust their field of vision and perspective at any time in the space. As the viewer walks slowly through the cut-ups' large prisms, the movement of the body causes the viewing distance to be in a contradictory relationship with the wall, either cramped or open, and along with the shifting, grinding, and adjustment of the field of view. These works, which transcend geographical boundaries, refract, derive, and intertextualize in a continuous movement of viewing acts, engaging in an unbroken 'internal reflection' within the flow of the visual field. Under the underlying logic of 'space is society', the viewer looks at their spiritual nature and inner state in the light of the experience of reality gained outside the control group, allowing the content of the control group to transcend the artist's practice, that is to say, to 'disperse' in the visual sense - to reassign the right to process information to the viewer in a prism-like vision.

The right to process information

The emergence of flowing space marked the beginning of our loss of this right. The concept of space deviated from the objective property of a measurable thing as an abstract product of the human information revolution, when people could carry out social activities without leaving their homes. Henri Lefebvre, a spatial theorist, lamented that in the Post-war Period, consumer goods and state capitalism gradually took control of everyday life, guided directly by space. This control was directly driven by space. In this theoretical context, “space is society” was developed when flowing space was no longer confined to Mies van der Rohe's earlier notion of architectural space but was permeated by regional, urban and social rights.

Reclaiming the right to process information means reclaiming some of the possibilities, how these possibilities were once suppressed in the choice of reality or the chance of historical chance, how there are existences out of sight that is not expressed, expressions that are not remembered, and memories that are permanently ignored.

At the same time, this means recapturing the faded perceptions of the modern age. In this exhibition, the British artist Ed Compson (b. 1991), in his abstract painting practice, refers to the working method of physicality and technical premeditation as a new 'autonomous nervous system'. He uses a pre-programmed laser controller to burn the canvas and paints on it. This productive method fully invokes the body and the machine in what he calls an 'intimate and unconscious form of communication'.

In her series of works, Finnish artist Mari Sunna (b. 1972) reproduces the body and the five senses with the minimalism and compositions characteristic of the Scandinavian region. Like occasional flashes of dreams and spiritual visions during a mechanical social life, the artist manages to evoke familiar everyday moments for the viewer while depicting the personal feelings of modern man as he oscillates between reality and illusion.

In the self-description of Chilean artist Vicente Matte (b. 1987), the 'space of mobility' that permeates urban settlements and social rights has brought people into a 'place without answers', defining himself as a He defines himself as a representative "caught between individualism and collectivism", juxtaposing the information society, the history of the South American city and his family memories, transforming the blocks of colour in his images into expressions of the differences in context between individuals and communities.

Back in the Viewshed

In German, viewshed and horizon are the same words (Horizont), but viewshed is unlimited. With the subject's movement, the viewshed can be extended at will, and the subject can never reach the boundaries of the viewshed. The horizon can be extended at will, and the subject can never get to the edges of the horizon. The horizon is a place that can only be seen but not delineated.

German artist Johanna Seidel (b. 1993) recreates the process of change in her field of vision through a lyrical visual language, aided by symbols from history, myths and dreams that distil memory and imagination into the ultimate abstract moment, making her personal experience accessible and experiential through visual experience.

On the other hand, the work of Chinese artist Yan Xinyue (b. 1992) focuses on the people and their state beneath the rapidly developing urban horizon. She dramatises urban scenes of passion, anxiety and melancholy. These deculturally removed urban environments are more likely to provoke empathy for city dwellers from cross-cultural backgrounds and allow the viewer to glimpse the seams of joy, relief and hedonism within the harsh reality of life.

In the philosophical sense, the viewshed is related to the physical range of seeing and the mental place. Thus, the field of vision as a philosophical concept can also be translated as the field of view.

The dimensional switch is also reflected in the personal experience and practice of the artist Virginia Russolo (b. 1995), who was born in Odelzo, Italy, and subsequently lived in Portland, Tokyo, Oxford and Amsterdam, eventually settling in the city. Oxford and Amsterdam, and settled in Crete.

Her highly heterogeneous cultural backgrounds converge into a consensual energy that drives her to move from the viewshed to an inner vision of the spiritual, her transmedial practice is imbued with natural elements, and she explores fetishism by recreating the religious and ritual relics of modernity's material life. Her cross-media practice is replete with natural ingredients. It explores the origins of worship and, more importantly, reconnects nature with sensory experience by recreating the relics of religion and ritual in the earthly life of modernity.

As a control group, the exhibition space and the works co-create a condensed state that includes frozen time and a transcendent existence in which consciousness is allowed to lead the physical body. The prism's refraction is accompanied by an unbridled ferment of imagination, which becomes the self-judgment, feelings, and emotional values each individual seeks to rely on.The flow of information and space transforms the self's existence, and the individual's constant and rapid confrontation with the flow of information prevents one from experiencing full temporality and diminishes one's ability to perceive oneself as having a tangible connection to local society. Flow becomes the only core to maintain a firm connection in a borderless page and space at a time when the concept of time, centrality, and identity distinctions are fading, and makes the exhibition the eye of the storm for a moment of peace in the midst of a turbulent social reality.