Position; Reposition
2024.6.29 - 2024.8.11
Opening: 2024.6.29 15:00 - 19:00
Artist: Ruyun Gao
Curator: Yusi Xiong
On view from 29th June to 11th August 2024, Nan Ke Gallery presents Position; Reposition, a solo exhibition of an array of new and site-specific work by artist Ruyun Gao. Offering the potential for activation and interactions throughout, the exhibition will showcase a series of recent installations, paintings, and a large-scale site-specific work by the artist. The complexity of Gao's works and his profound exploration of consciousness unfold progressively throughout the gallery space, creating a dynamic and reflective interaction between the viewer and the artwork. The exhibition title also alludes to a potential active or passive relationship, revealing the deep psychological tension hidden within Gao's serene works, inviting viewers to engage in openended interpretations.
Ruyun Gao
LOOP LOOP f，2024
Carbon fiber printing, acrylic plate, copper plate, motor
24h x 22w x 10d cm
The exhibition unfolds with a small body of Gao’s iconic works from the LOOP series, continuing the artist's exploration of line movement and temporality since 2011. The artist constructs different spatial structures by connecting ropes, fishing lines, and acrylic materials, and subtly integrates the movement and rhythm of lines into them, guiding the viewer's consciousness to follow the geometric trajectory of the lines in the works, and to linger in the time-space constructed by the works. The viewing experience changes from passive acceptance of the work to active participation, and the work is constantly redefined in contrast to the mosaic patterns on the walls of the gallery and in interaction with the viewer.
Ruyun Gao
Awareness-000，2024
Stainless-steel, nylon rope, fishing line
150h x 110w x 6.3d cm
Gao's inspiration often stems from an appreciation of the many unexpected yet non-specific moments in daily life. For him, creation seems to be both a discovery and capture of consciousness as well as a methodical transformation. In the work Zoom (2020), the electric vertical lines break the visual habit of sweeping from side to side, and while these lines retain their reality as symbols, they also become a formal language that presents the artist's consciousness. The Awareness series of works further break the boundaries between rule-based compositional principles and chance. The lines in these works are suspended in the frame by the artist's precise calculations and the interplay of multiple tensions, like diagrams in a physics experiment revealing unseen forces. Rather than depicting known rules, they are a record of the gestures of the lines and the artist's own intuition. Here there is a marvellous interactivity between Gao's works and the viewer: blurring spatial dimensions and de-emphasising the dynamics of regularity, the full extent of these works requires time, careful observation, accidental external forces, and a combination of the viewer's attention to the nuances of his or her own perceptual processes to be fully revealed. In other specific structures, the artist displaces or transfers the viewer's consciousness by constantly reshaping and combining different elements of the work. In Happy Couple (2024), the juxtaposition of installation, paint and linguistic elements gives the viewer more points of intervention in the work. It is as if some kind of self-consciousness and judgement that has already been in circulation has been transformed into words, and in a monumental state, it reflects the artist's process of exploring the emergence of the context of consciousness and the infinity of the context.
Ruyun Gao
Zoom，2019
Mixed media on canvas
190h x 110w x 4d cm
Gao once mentioned, "Interesting is not an art form that I deliberately pursue, but rather a result that I eventually encounter in my constant exploration while creating." For his first exhibition of large-scale site-specific work Disturbance (2024), the artist has created an immersive space on the top floor of the gallery in the form that seems familiar, yet cannot be associated with any particular moment or place. The simple combination of static water and an occasional line crossing the surface poetically yet powerfully evokes the memory of the viewer's presence at the water's edge. As a carrier of random consciousness, the line occasionally passes over the water surface, disturbing the water ripples. Though small, these ripples constantly remind us of the subtle movements and changes inherent in things in the surrounding environment. It is like the relationship between the bottom of the picture in the psychology of perception, where the water surface and the viewer and the surroundings it reflects are the bottom, and the disturbing water ripples appear as images at an unanticipated moment, and the viewer switches continuously between self-consciousness and random consciousness. Like a moment of clarity,or an opportunity for enlightenment, Gao skillfully captures this rapidly changing state of perception,inviting the viewer to find a moment of balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the static and the dynamic, the self and the environment.
Ruyun Gao
Disturbance，2024
Pool, sand, motor, nylon rope
500l x 400w x 450h cm
Gao's works subtly blend varying degrees of simulation and dynamism, confusion and subversion, guiding the viewer's eyes to wander between multiple dimensions. In the process of exploring the role of the artist, he constantly challenges our preconceived notions of the creator's identity, while also questioning traditional notions of meaning-making in artworks. Through his unique artistic language, Gao invites us to re-examine the memories and expectations projected by the viewer on the artwork, as well as the intricate interaction between the artwork, the viewer and the environment. His creations are not only a presentation of visual experience, but also an in-depth exploration of the nature of consciousness and the boundaries of perception. In this artistic experiment full of uncertainty, the viewer seems to be in a silent dialogue. Gao's works are like subtle mirrors that reflect the unspeakable fluctuations in our hearts.
