Mind Versus Matter: Fairytale or Allegory?

movement through the exhibition space as they search for metaphors applicable to their own predicaments. In her studio I saw the layout board for her exhibition proposal. Aside from pieces distributed through the various showrooms, there is also a huge drop curtain hanging along the wall, with a winding staircase… together these evoke a stage-like ambience, a “synoptic field of view” laid out by the artist herself.
In fact, her intention is focused on the exhibition as creative work, not just on a number of single pieces. I surmise that her conception was influenced right from the start by the proposed exhibition site. She repeatedly weighed and revolved the museum’s layout in her mind until it became a piece of “private territory” or secret kingdom. As a result she decided to combine several roles in her own person: as artist, she would create the pieces; as curator she would showcase these pieces and exert a “cur-ative” effect by means of the space; and finally, as commentator on her own exhibition, she would draw viewers into a certain dimension of thought. By taking on this final role, she perhaps reveals her anxiety over the possible rift she senses between the works and her expressive intention.
The existence of acrobatics, in and of itself, implies performance, just as animal existence implies being looked at. Her work on these two series did not unfold around such a focus, but their on-site positioning could perhaps serve to strengthen this aspect. But even now what I find truly compelling has to do with the empathetic talent and emotional perceptiveness that her works have always displayed. One could say that her intention is to make this exhibition an allegorical diorama, yet to a large extent it ends up presenting a fairytale realm, or one could say that it constitutes an uneasy negotiation between fairytale and allegory.

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In fact, “acrobatics” is a preoccupation that has long been entrenched in her memory. This idée fixe has its source in a documentary from Hong Kong which she saw as a child — Acrobatic Luminaries (Zaji yinghao). The remarkable displays of acrobatics in the film amazed and fascinated her. By her own account,