Galerie Urs Meile is honoured to announce the latest solo exhibition of young artist Cao Yu (b. 1988, Liaoning province), Passing Through the Human World. This is the artist's third solo exhibition at Galerie Urs
Meile. This exhibition includes short videos, photography, multimedia installation, performance, sculpture and on-canvas art. While much of Cao Yu's creations in the early years after her graduation from the
academy were rooted in her own individual experience, her recent works attempt to cut right to the heart
of the ultimate theme of human nature, creating a highly distinctive and incisive artistic interpretation
revolving around such subjects as living, encounters and separation.
The large scale multimedia installation at the exhibition entrance, I Just Don't Want You to Live Better Than I Do (2021, site-specific installation with variable channel neon sign, 289 x 105 x 10 cm) draws
from the classic ancient Chinese style prevalent in neon Chinese signage from the 1980s and 90s, and uses
flashy, provocative language to immediately engage the viewer's feelings, forcefully dragging out a dark
side of human nature to present it naked and flashing under an unflinching light. In the equally loud
performance work Blind Your Eyes (2021, suit, the artist, programmable lights, 74 x 50 cm) the artist will
walk through the exhibition space on the day of opening in an elegant black western suit covered in
programmable LED lights, presenting and mocking the aura of 'success' in ways highly visual and
absurd.
Cao Yu's creative language has always been sharp, bizarre, bold and humorous. Cao Yu has never been interested in 'Feminism'. To the contrary, she prefers more powerful, wise and humorous transformation methods to explore the most piercing motifs of human nature. As she says, 'How can it hit the mark if it's not fierce and painful?' In the photographic work Dragon Head (2020, c-print, 220 x 147 cm), the artist transforms her memories of the heavy iron and steel industry of her native northeast China—heavy, crude, rigid, strong—into a photographic image of an androgynous figure with a calm, composed presence. The model is the artist herself. In the photographic work The Thing In the Chest (2020, bull's heart, tiger head tattoo, the artist, 160 × 179 cm), that same androgynous figure holds up a giant bull's heart tattooed with the head of a tiger. Some people tattoo strength onto their chests, some inscribe ambitions into their hearts. She yearns for a fierce tiger in her own heart, so that she can press forward without fear.
In the aerial holographic projection Where Have You Been (2020, aerial holographic projection, 120 × 120 cm), an apparition of a sage or a monk appears like a mirage in the air above the exhibition space. He seems to float in mid-air, approaching you with a smile from the distant aura. The illusory figure's benevolent smile gradually recedes, and his face takes on a grave look that shifts to disappointment, and then tears. As you gaze at him, he tersely asks, 'Where have you been?' then disappears. Why does this noble, elevated figure cry with disappointment at the sight of you? It is as if the viewer has been placed in an unreal world of dreams, and is awakened in the baptism of a cold breeze, to realize where their true selves are going.
Nothing Can Ensure that We Will Meet Again (Ice Age - 2014, umbilical cord of the artist's son, crystal resin, mammoth leg bone fossil, 130 × 37 × 30 cm) elucidates the themes of this exhibition in a more
mournful tone. The artist preserved the umbilical cord from the birth of her son seven years ago (2014),
and has joined its ends to create a closed loop, using transparent materials to embed it into a fossilised
bone (130 cm in length) from the largest land mammal to have ever lived, the Ice Age woolly mammoth.
The segments in the loop symbolize an ending, but the loop also symbolises the beginning of a new cycle.
She has turned a life departed ten thousand years ago into a witness to two lives in the present, as well as
a site of preservation, and an oracle. In this way, meeting and parting become eternal.
For Cao Yu, creation is about living. She says, 'Life is like sitting on a crooked bench. No matter how you sit, it's always awkward and uncomfortable. Art is like a weapon given to me by the gods, allowing me to be fearless in art.' We all seek meaning in our lives. Some people find it, and some people become lost. Where we are lost is where the unconsciousness grows.
The human world has never been our final destination, but in the human world, we have encountered countless meetings and partings. We are merely passing through.
Press release courtesy Galerie Urs Meile.
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