XIAO YU

The term ‘BB’, with its duality of simple appearance and overabundance of connotations, bears the artist’s reflection on the phenomenon of over-interpretation in the contemporary art world. Xiao Yu’s homonymic BB series of bronze sculptures is an extension of his past ‘bamboo’ sculptures that emphasise the ‘violent deconstruction’ of traditional symbols. Having evolved from that, the new series moves away from the manifestation of violence and instead devotes itself to the construction and writing of the artist’s own language. The lines of these works are disorderly yet fluent, reminiscent of the brushstrokes in Chinese calligraphy. Xiao Yu adapts the medium of bronze to make the ‘bamboo’ break away from its innate physical characteristics and realise otherwise unachievable postures. The lines and colours form an internal context that does not depend on the external environment–fragmentation and alienation of bamboo as a symbol makes it a part of his personal abstract language. The artist retains the visual cognition of bamboo through details on the works while removing its traditional connotations, and in this process, the subtle convergence from the natural to the artificial is acquired, providing a most intuitive aesthetic experience to the audience.

Three sets of video works are featured in an adjacent room, continuing the use of bamboo as artistic language. A narrative with the fragmentation of bamboo as its manifestation is created within the visual contrast of dynamic and static, light and dark. It speaks for itself that the bamboo, rather than being the subject, is emancipated from its cultural symbolism by the artist and instead becomes a sensory context for experience. With regards to the relationship between his creations and the audience, Xiao Yu believes that after a natural accumulation of experience viewing contemporary, the gallery audience now possesses the ability to read the works independently, instead of relying on the injection of meaning from artists. Using multiple visually expressive forms of media, Xiao Yu constructs a free environment for spontaneous dialogue between his work and the audience. The diversity in interpretation, drawn from an individual’s background and life experience, is the artist’s desired result.