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The Art World in Focus
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Shi Yong

SHI YONG

I've Forgotten the Question ShanghART 19 April–1 June 2023 Online Only
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Press Release

The exhibition title is taken from the homonymous work “I’ve forgotten the question” quote from Georges Bataille’s book The lmpossible. The original text reads, “I’ve forgotten the question: it was accompanied by a perceptible change, like a trip re-lease cutting the ties”Shi Yong rewrote the “sentence” into a “question”, leaving room for the viewer’s imagination while directly pointing to the artist’s “intervention style of creation: the grammatical reconstruction of real life, including words. Shi Yong is like a game player, who observes everyday objects from an alternative perspective, forcibly intervenes in their original orbit of function by cutting, reorganizing, and erasing them, and reveals the hidden reality of power in the intervened habits.

The exhibition focuses on a series of works by Shi Yong, who used textual grammar and the cutting and reorganizing of objects as a creative method in the last decade, including Let All Potential Be Internally Resolved Using Beautiful Form and Under the Rule-H, as well as a new installation, Xingfu 250-A. In particular, the exhibition presents You Can Fly Higher, a work created at the beginning of the century and a hallucination reality in that distant context. it has formed a meaningful contextual relationship with other works created in the last decade, guiding the viewer into the artist’s conceptual art creation which is full of free and resistant spirit and is closely related to the environment.

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About the Artist

Shi Yong is a representative figure of contemporary Chinese artists who first started working with installation and video media. Since 1993, his works have been widely exhibited both in China and abroad. His artworks cover a wide range of mediums including performance, video, and installation. Shi Yong’s earliest artistic practices focused on revealing the subtlety of our reality and the inherent tension of the “system”. At the end of the 1990s, Shi began focusing on the idea of Shanghai’s transformations under the Chinese economic reform, which contributed to a discussion of globalization and consumerism. Since 2006, with the piece “Sorry, There will be no Documenta in 2007”, he turned his attention to the art world that he’s been involved in, pondering how to provide a more rational perspective through his creative works. Shi Yong’s 2015 solo exhibition “Let All Potential Be Internally Resolved Using Beautiful Form” continues his art practice, disclosing his intention to expand the reflection and practice of “control” under the seemingly “abstract” future.

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Also Exhibiting at ShanghART

All Exhibitions
Tang Maohong
TANG MAOHONG Simplified ShanghART 16 May–28 June 2026 Singapore
Xu Hongxiang, Zhai Liang
XU HONGXIANG, ZHAI LIANG The Gap Between Day and Night Shanghart 15 May–27 June 2026 SUHE
About the Gallery

When ShanghArt Gallery opened its doors in Shanghai in 1996, it was one of the first contemporary art galleries in China. Today, the gallery operates from two spaces in the city (West Bund and Putuo District), with additional locations in Beijing and Singapore.

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Address
9 Lock Road, 02–22
Gillman Barracks
Singapore
Singapore
Opening Hours
Wednesday – Sunday
11am – 7pm
Closed on Monday, Tuesday and Public Holidays
(1)
Singapore 9 Lock Road, 02–22, Gillman Barracks
ShanghART contemporary art gallery in Singapore
ShanghART
9 Lock Road, 02–22, Gillman Barracks, Singapore, Singapore
+65 673 495 37
http://www.shanghartgallery.com

Opening hours
Wednesday – Sunday
11am – 7pm
Closed on Monday, Tuesday and Public Holidays
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The art world in focus