DE SARTHE is pleased to present its third solo exhibition for its represented, Beijing-based artist Zhong Wei, titled Weight Drifting. The exhibition is a continuation of the artist's ongoing exploration of the contemporary socio-technological landscape and its unchecked fostering of transhumanism. Featuring a new body of works on canvas, the exhibited artworks initiate a dialogue regarding the invisible shift in power dynamics between man and machine, consequential to the advancement of artificial intelligence but also the atrophy of manual effort enabled by accelerationist technology. Under the brush of Zhong Wei, the metamorphoses of digital textures into organic entities appear as if a study of living subjects and specimens. Weight Drifting opens 7 October and runs through 11 November.

The term 'weight' bears a specific meaning in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), referring to the importance given to an input and its correlated influence on the output – in essence, the basis on which AI builds its identification and judgment. Under a social context, 'weight' can be used to describe the extent of power or authority that certain individuals or parties may have over others and the decision-making process at-large. These invisible systems, though similar in logic and operation, seemingly exist in parallel in two different worlds, but Zhong Wei asks: "What about the weight between man and technology?"

Automation and its increasingly prominent role in the development of social ecology has become plain to see as it inserts itself into almost every aspect of life. However, to what event does humanity still retain significance in the advancement of technology? Surrounded by the anarchic pandemonium that Zhong Wei portrays, the answer might perhaps be "little to none." From his large-scale artworks up to 3.5 meters in length to his array of smaller sized canvases, Zhong Wei's maximalist, visceral, and unapologetic visual language speaks to unbated intensity at which technology operates. Layering a multitude of digital textures and motifs, his painted imagery resembles living and growing amorphous creatures that walk among a disorienting and pixelated world. Dwarfed afront his artworks, the experience is as if visiting a science museum of unnatural history, with exhibits evocative of both awe and anxiety.

Within the exhibition, a disorganized array of texts and imageries are mounted on a singular wall, reminiscent of an investigation board. Titled Cover with a Shell (2023), Zhong Wei's installation artwork comprises a scattered documentation of his thoughts on AI in art. Mixed within the materials are images he created using AI amalgamations of past works as well as several short stories he wrote through an AI program. UV-printed on irregular sheets of PVC, Zhong Wei's observations are presented either in the form of a user review or as part of a conversation transcript between the artist and an AI chat-bot. Within this fragmented manifesto, he examines the utilitarian applications of technology in art and questions the point in practice at which AI would finally outweigh the artist. Reflecting on the capabilities of technology against the criteria of art and being an artist, Zhong Wei speculates a near future – or perhaps present – in which any trace of the human artist will be wiped clear, for better or for worse.

However, for the time being, Zhong Wei is persistent on folding into his artworks the evidence of humanity, be it in his manual techniques, perceptive compositions, or use of cultural motifs. His intention is exemplified in his smaller canvas works, in which he incorporates anthropomorphized depictions of Chinese calligraphic characters. Respectively illustrating the letters of "lust" (色), "body" (身), "eat" (⻝), and "think"(想), the artworks allude to attributes that are inherent to human, namely to desire, feel, consume, and reflect. Simultaneously considering the pictorial genesis of Chinese hieroglyphics, Zhong Wei not only elucidates the contemporary reversion to a visually reliant mode of communication but also crafts a reminder that all tools of expression– from early written language to AI content generators – have always been advanced by humans and for humans. Keeping in mind the ultimate beneficiary of technological advancements, the artist asks again, "Who has the weight between man and machine?"

Press release courtesy DE SARTHE.