ShanghART Beijing is pleased to present solo exhibition 'I Love You' by renowned Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of Melati in China, will showcase her multidisciplinary approach to art, consisting of a variety of works ranging from photography, videography, to what she is best known for—durational performance. The exhibition opens on Wednesday, 18th April 2018 and runs through 14th May 2018, with an accompanying live performance by the artist on 18th, 29th April and 1st May 2018.
Melati Suryodarmo's performances are concerned with cultural, social and political aspects, which she articulates through her psychological and physical body. She thereby compiles, extracts, conceptualizes and translates phenomena or subjects into movement, actions, and gestures that are specific to her performance. Her performances feature elements of physical presence and visual art as a means of talking about identity, energy, politics and relationships between the body and its surroundings.
I Love You is a durational performance piece in which the artist moves around, carrying the weight of a large sheet of a glass whilst simultaneously struggling to come to terms with the phrase 'l Love you,' spoken throughout. The spoken language that represents the background of a human culture, the way of thinking and identity, is a formed structure that we use to communicate with others. 'I Love You' is provoking the meaning of a language and the bias of its use. It was performed first time at Off*Ample, Barcelona in 2007. In 2014, Melati also presented this work at Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (Basel, Switzerland), as part of the one day exhibition 'The Artist is an Explorer', curated by Marina Abramovic.
For this time, Melati also features videos of her previous performances artworks, including 'Eins Und Eins'(2016), and 'Transaction of Hollows' which was commissioned by and performed first time at Lilith Performance Studio, Malmo in 2016. Compared with the videos, Melati's photography seems to be a silent termination of her performance actions and processes. Her recent photography 'Tomorrow, As Purposed' series, presents the spirit of intense confrontation and personal anxiety with the dynamic and gestures of body, while 'Self Portrait' is related to her recent research on the poetics in performance art and the presence of 'poetic action' in her work.
Press release courtesy ShanghART.
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