ALIAS: AAAJIAO

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    LEO XU PROJECTS很荣幸地展出《代号:aaajiao》。本次展览是活跃于国际的中国年轻新媒体艺术家aaajiao在2015年的首次画廊个展。展览将集中呈现以aaajiao作为其网络别名和创作艺名的上海艺术家徐文恺新作以及为展览委约创作的项目。这批作品丈量了以新科技、新媒体为依托的艺术创作的新维度和方向,并探索了以互联网和数码技术为主导当代生活中急迫的议题。展览将从2015年1月16日展出至3月8日。展览同期将有一系列在线和线下的活动和展出。艺术家本人亦将会出席开幕酒会,时间:周五,1月16日,晚5至7时。

    如近年影视以及流行文化作品中对“科幻”题材的热衷和泛化,《代号:aaajiao》亦从aaajiao创作中近似“科幻”的特征展开,重新想象当下科技的疆域和方向,并在不断更新的“时空”概念里,描绘人类住居和异变的未来。作品《枯山水》(2015)系为现场度身创作的雕塑。顾名思义,标题取自日本园林设计中的“枯山水”。这批由电脑算法生成的黑色海绵雕塑,触觉柔软却看似坚硬如磐石。它们形如异变的肢体,生长在展厅地面、墙面和楼梯,波浪状地推散、蔓延开去。而同类作品《不规则》(2015)则以比陨石更诡异的形态将科幻作品中对异形的美、黑暗的美的想象物化、移植进了日常空间。

    Aaajiao近期在与其包含了新媒体艺术家、设计师、程序员和工程师的跨领域团队协作中,创作了一批数字化的静物和风景作品。不同于传统意义中的静物、风景绘画,aaajiao单纯凭借电脑算法生成、数码渲染的影像作品为这些传统的艺术形式注入了新一层的时间、空间维度。如完成于2014年的《物 3》和《物 4》均在时间线索上绘制了难以再现的关于矿物岩石生成的静物作品。而《有限的无限风景》(2014-2015)则将计算机算法视觉化成了一副不断形变中的地貌图景,展示了漫长时间轴上传统艺术表现形式无法捕捉或想象的地貌无穷变化。这一系列包含了录像短片、出自电脑渲染的像素化的风景摄影,以及由磁悬浮技术完成的漂浮于半空的地貌雕塑。

    在本次展览的三楼展厅,艺术家将展出委约创作的最新系列。这批作品中aaajiao研发了自身独特的工作方式和视觉语言,探索中医理论中的经络原理。他将现代分形理论、计算机算法贯穿至他对中医的经络研究中,将人体内无形的场域外化进展览现场,甚至转译成为文身图案。该项目的另一个版本将在五月纽约的弗里兹艺术博览会的画廊展位中展出。

    Aaajiao是徐文恺的网络化名,aaajiao代表了他新媒体艺术家、博客、网络活动家等诸多身份。而其线下的工作亦包括了上海联合办公项目“新单位”的创始人——这个项目讨论了在国际都市上海个体游牧式的工作生活的可能性——以及新媒体艺术家的教师等。Aaajiao于1984年生于西安,就像这个年份——1984年也是奥威尔同名小说的标题——和地点所象征的巧合,他的作品充满了强烈的科技的想象以及文人情怀。不少aaajiao的作品都切中了今天互联网相关的新思维、议题以及现象,其中不少项目都探索了数据处理、博客领域以及中国的防火墙等问题。Aaajiao近期的创作中的跨领域协作(建筑、电子音乐、表演、产品设计、医学等)都无疑都聚焦于今天消费网络技术、生活于社交媒体中的青年一代。

    Aaajiao的作品频繁展出于国内外的诸多展览,其中包括《齐物等观——国际新媒体艺术三年展》,中国美术馆,北京(2014);《PANDAMONIUM 又一次发声 ——来自上海的媒体艺术》,Momentum,柏林(2014);《西岸建筑与当代艺术双年展》,上海(2013);《平行世界》,录映太奇,香港(2011);《转译媒体节》,柏林(2010),等等。2014年底,他不仅荣获第三届三亚艺术季暨华宇青年家评审大奖,亦入围首届OCAT皮埃尔•于贝尔奖。

    当前,aaajiao的作品亦可在上海两家美术馆的展览展出:《多重宇宙——有限与无限,存在与共存》, 上海二十一世纪民生美术馆;《熵之真相》,OCAT当代艺术中心上海馆。

     

    “alias: aaajiao” marks the first solo exhibition with the gallery of the widely exhibited young Chinese media artist Xu Wenkai. Based in Shanghai and working under the vague and comical internet alias of aaajiao, the artist will be presenting a body of new and commissioned works, which measure the new dimension of high technology and media-based works, and address the issues derived from contemporary living with Internet and digital technology. The exhibition runs from January 16th through March 8th, 2015, with a series of events and presentations to take place on and off line. The artist will be present at the opening reception on Friday January 16th, 5-7pm.

    As the title suggests, “alias: aaajiao” highlights an intense sci-fi aspect of aaajiao’s recent projects that re-imagines the capacity and direction of technology and pictures the future of human living and physical transformation through evolving notion of time and space, which has been subjects of films and many other pop culture products in the past two years. The centerpiece of the show “Karesansui”(2015) is a site-specific sculpture that borrows its title from Japanese Dry Landscape also known as the Rock Garden. Created by his algorithm and made of sponges that look as firm as rock, “Karesansui” presents an unsettling dystopian scenery of numerous pitch-black mutant limbs that grow out of the gallery’s floors, walls, and stairway, sprawling all over and competing with each other. Another set of sculptures “Anomaly” (2015)—produced in technique and material identical to “Karesansui” but in the shape of meteors—celebrates the classic beauty of dark imagination of bio and physical mutation that has been frequent to the sci-fi cinema and visual representation.

    Having collaborated with a team of media artist, designer, programmer and engineer, aaajiao has been challenging the complexity of digitized still-life and landscape works. “Obj. 3″ and “Obj. 4″ (both made in 2014), two video portraits of stones on miniature screens, introduced a new dimension of time and space to a classic and painterly composition. Limited Landscape, Unlimited is an on-going series that explores the geologic evolution, by visualizing the ever-changing landscape through his algorithmic study and digital rendering. The project includes a video showcasing infinite possibilities of geologic formation, a set of photographs of pixelized land, and a maglev installation featuring a sculpture prototype spinning in the air.

    On the third floor of gallery will be a commissioned new project, in which aaajiao has invented his own methodology to investigate the invisible physical operation of meridian system (in Chinese herbal medicine and philosophy). He incorporates the contemporary Fractal Theory and computer algorithm in his research to trace the energy channels and points within human body, transplanting this internal micro universe into tattoo patterns and gallery space. A variation of the presentation will also be on view in gallery’s booth in forthcoming Frieze Art Fair New York.
    Actively online as a media artist, blogger, activist and programmer, aaajiao is the virtual persona of Shanghai-based artist Xu Wenkai, whose offline practices include a celebrated entrepreneur of co-working projects Xindanwei—that tested a new way of living and working nomad in cosmopolitan Shanghai—and an inspiring teacher of New Media art. Born in 1984 in one of China’s oldest cities Xi’an, aaajiao’s art and works are marked by a strong dystopian awareness—his year of birth being the synonym of Orwell’s classic allegory novel—and literati spirits and sophistication. Many of aaajiao’s works speak to new thinking, controversies and phenomenon around Internet, with specific projects focusing on the processing of Data, the blogsphere and China’s Great Fire Wall. Aaajiao’s recent projects extend his practice to various disciplines (architecture, electronic music, performance, product design, medicine, among many others) to take the pulse of a young generation consuming cyber technology and living in social media.

    Aaajiao’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, for instance, “Thingworld: International Triennial of New Media Art”, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2014); “Pandamounium”, Media Art from Shanghai, Momentum, Berlin (2014);The West Bund Architecture and Contemporary Art Biennale, Shanghai (2013); “One World” Exposition—Chinese Art in the Age of the New Media, Videotage, Hong Kong (2011); Transmediale, Berlin (2010), etc. He received the Jury Prize from Art Sanya Awards 2014 and was nominated for the first edition of OCAT—Pierre Huber Art Prize in 2014.

    Concurrently a selection of aaajiao’s recent works are also on view in two museums in Shanghai: “Cosmos—Limited and Limitless, Existence and Co-existence”, 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai and “The Truth About Entropy”, OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal Shanghai, Shanghai.


    The artist and the gallery wish to thank Fan Shisan, Liu Xiaoguang, Nara, Shen Lei, Xu Cong and many others for their collaborations in various projects.

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