Tabula Rasa Gallery is pleased to announce that Li Tao's two-space solo exhibition "椅子\BANK" will open at Tabula Rasa Gallery's Beijing Space on May 24 and AYE Gallery on May 26. The exhibition invited independent curator and writer Leo Li Chen to write articles for the exhibition.

The word "bank", derived from the Italian word "banca", originally meant a chair or a table used for commercial transactions. Later, in English, it evolved into "bank," referring to a cabinet for storing money. Artist Li Tao's latest solo exhibition, "椅子\BANK," draws on this linguistic transformation to explore questions of safety, equality, and standards of value. Additionally, it highlights his recent focus on the psychological responses and behaviours of individuals when subjected to external forces.

The exhibition unfolds with a cylindrical installation located in the central area, originally designed as a "chair" but transformed into an isolated object waiting to be activated. Six independent spaces and their artworks create a cyclical movement between progress and regression: a reception area with a hidden entrance leading to the VIP room, serving as the initial contact between the interior and exterior; exchanges between private life and public space through kitchenware and vents; time-limited, passively displayed cylindrical installation; how the public realm intervenes in the intimate daily life; sublime lighting trusses flash and extinguish under human control; and the VIP room, simultaneously inviting and scrutinising, inverting the relationship of power.

The juxtaposition of familiarity and unfamiliarity, safety and the unknown, no longer presents stark contrasts but rather paradoxes, embodied in Li Tao's artistic exploration of space and material: The isolation between internal and external spaces conveys the illusion when an individual's spiritual belonging is compressed. The interplay of observation and being observed, along with invitations and controls, creates a flattened, unattended theatricality. Li Tao exercises extreme restraint in the colour palette of this series, using black, white, and grey to present the subtle dynamics of material structures, accentuating an individual will in a passive state. The exhibition thus questions the effectiveness of value. While capital and credit flow through chairs in banks, the exhibition provides another fair space for inquiry and exchange. It resembles a small museum, displaying items of acknowledged and scrutinised value. They are protected yet constantly being replaced. In this process, what is the value of protection and replacement?

Text by Leo Li Chen

Press release courtesy Tabula Rasa Gallery.