Miao Xiaochun: A glimpse through time

×

Expand

Miao Xiaochun, “Industrial World,” 1999

inkjet print, 127 x 247 cm. (courtesy of the Artist)

A Visit from the Past to the Present is a series of photographs created by artist Miao Xiaochun between 1999 and 2004. The artist places a sculpture he made of an ancient Chinese figure into various modern urban settings around the world to create a series of cinematic still images. The dramatic composition and tone of these images give them a unique poetic quality.

The act of poeticizing reality and transforming its appearance is a technique favoured by German Romantic artists such as Novalis. Later, surrealist artists such as Max Ernst also focused on the poetic and estranging aspects of reality, using these strategies to break free from the constraints of logical thinking, a method shared with Chinese Zen Buddhism. Xiaochun’s photographs with this ancient Chinese figure also contain surreal elements. He uses a poetic perspective and grand dramatic expression to guide us in discovering the multiple meanings of his work.

Xiaochun has achieved significant success in the international art world, and the curators hope to reintroduce to the public this selection of artwork by the artist, spanning over twenty years. This exhibition, A glimpse through time, encourages viewers to reconsider the changes in “time – space – ethnicity – globalization”, as the artist states in his monograph Miao Xiaochun: Visits from the Past to the Present (2004). Throughout the past two decades, his artwork asks: can the artist’s reflections transcend the dimensions of time and space, offering insights to audiences of different eras?