SETAREH is pleased to announce Beijing-based artist Tong Kunniao's solo exhibition The myth of human nature on the occasion of this year's DC Open Galleries.
The practice of Tong Kunniao links different conceptual ideas through a collection and assemblage of second-hand and disregarded items (Objet trouvé). The works for the exhibition The myth of human nature at SETAREH reflect on the nature of humanity, the impacts new technologies have on it and how will they affect the future.
On the first floor, Tong Kunniao depicts faces in paintings and sculptures. The face is one of the main representations of human life and they are, in these series of works, intertwined with technological gadgets such as car reflectors, speakers or machinery. Mirroring the beginning of Artificial Intelligence and facing a near future in which transhumanism could be indicative of what is nowadays described as 'normal'. The myth of human nature can also be translated as Second Natural Person, setting the grounds for the concept around which the artworks presented in the exhibition are created. The 'natural person' refers to the purest version of human life. The individual who has undergone transformation of any kind, no matter if ideological, mechanical, technological or educational, is then the 'Second Natural Person'. The individual which has lived in society, that has interacted with it, growing part of it, moulding into it.
The presented hybrid figures are placed in the compositions with elements of collective knowledge, i.e. cultural icons or educational biases. The introduction of specific symbols, such as birds, flowers, etc., gives meaning to a way of understanding the world, rather linked to past times, when significance was more connected to nature. By introducing these elements, the artist poses questions about consciousness and identity in relation to nature and intelligence.
The second exhibition room immerses the viewer into a nocturnal series of works, where borders dissolve and possibilities broaden. Collecting diverse experiences, Tong Kunniao portrays the shifting atmospheres when walking back home from the studio at night. Placing the context here within the nocturnal activity, the artist mixes the colourful with the grotesque, focusing on the impact of visual languages, that can sometimes seem foreign although being part of our daily routine.
Throughout the whole exhibition, the aesthetics of ancient Chinese painting, symbolising the stubbornness of tradition, collide with changes of an era. The opposing realities present an imbalance in which the artist finds the harmony of the moment, a vibrant echo of the current time. The works present discourses, known and foreign, that evolve, expand, metamorphose and adapt. Both spaces reflect, as a whole, on the contrast of vibrant and effervescent creative moods, powered by electrical and mechanical devices in counterpart to the calmness and emancipation from duty, the freedom liberated in the night.
Duality in life, two sides of one coin, that are accompanied by a deliberation on ethics and principles. Tong Kunniao brings the viewers and society itself to a point of questioning the reassessment of moral value, of what is real, what is nature, what life means to us, and where do we want to go.
A reorganisation of social structures might appear as the next step: breaking up, reuniting, rediscovering or leaving behind. Choosing. A prioritisation on the journey of human intelligence as well as its nature. Science, inevitably linked to the natural order, and technology, inevitably linked to our time, will most likely play an important part in challenging the rules of the world as it is.
On the verge of social change, the judgement on moral values rises. In a world facing a scientific transformation, where hybrid species keep appearing, Tong Kunniao's work presents questions and reflections about nature, mythology, intelligence, consciousness and identity, leaving to the viewer the freedom to deliberate on what all those concepts mean to oneself and the importance they have within our society.
However remote viewing the theme of Tong Kunniao's work seems to appear, the connection between the traditional and visionary contemporary unites a unique level of aesthetic relevance with an outstanding vision of the current time.
Tong Kunniao (b. 1990 in Changsha, Hunan, CN) graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. He has exhibited in many solo and group shows, including CC Foundation, Shanghai, CN, Jupiter Museum, Shenzhen, CN, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, US, DUOLUN Museum Shanghai Youyi, Shanghai, CN, Hua international, Berlin, DE and Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, CN, amongst other.
Press release courtesy SETAREH.
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