Westbund Art&Design Booth B105｜Mengzhou: Traveller among star dust

 

 

 

 

 

Driven by a deep humility towards nature, the work of the 1992 born artist derives much of its richness and uniqueness from sojourns in remote or extreme places. Another important factor for his high concentration and versatility are the artist's phases of complete retreat. Meng Zhou is an observer and a seeker of cultures and their settings, as well as of the places where our cosmos seems to come closest. He concludes that life may return to its mineral origins, with meteorites holding archives of past worlds, polished by time like a hidden cosmos.

 

 

Bronze, arrow body

90h x 7w cm x 1.2d cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

A variety of techniques serve to make the ideal image of his imagination tangible and visible to the viewer. Meng uses time to draw, works on many layers of polished clam shell powder, complements found evidence of decades of natural processes with his own formal language or uses scrap metal as the basis for objects and installations. ‘Zhou navigates through time’ is the apt description in a recent article in the Taipei Times (23.8.2024 www.taipeitimes.com ). His work embodies a kind of tragic humor, where stories remain incomplete, ending in ruins or destruction. This reflects the power of uncertainty and the inevitability of an ending. Time and history become subjects to be observed, interpreted, and guessed at, despite limited information. The audience is invited into this game of hide and seek, with no need to worry about losing or failing.

 

 

Wood, meteorite, silver, bronze, mineral pigment, wax, clamshell powder

63.5h x 56.5w x 16d cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

In Meng's recent work, the element of flame is fully explored and experimented with. He loves the charred state of wood. This charcoal effect is both dangerous and full of possibilities, symbolizing both the beginning and the end. Huge shells survive the blazing flames as if echoing ancient stories like Dunhuang murals, those relics eroded by time. Burnt images cling to the wooden substrate, refreshed by the heat, telling stories of demise and rebirth. The wood symbolizes concrete stories, but is consumed in the warmth of the flames, while the flames symbolize new life, as if the phoenix, reborn from the ashes, rises again.

 

 

 

 

Meng Zhou  

Because I Am Still Alive（Start Chart Edition）, 2024

Meteorite, silver, metal supports, booths, mats, resin

400h x 400w x 380d cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

On the ramp of the public installation in the DREAM xiàn chăng section, Meng enlarged one of his iconic paintings, “Move for This”. The work seems to place ancient cave murals depicting deities in a giant crystal ball, with totems of the 88 constellations embedded in meteors frozen in mid-air. Transparency and solitude, as the stone turns to flame, becomes light and dust, subtly changing the world, erasing lines and years - forming the bedrock of life. As it falls, fragments of the universe infuse the earth, time and space mingle in collision, and man and the stars dance together in this moment.

 

Night Unbroken, 2024

Rabbit skin glue, resin, ink, shell powder, mineral powder, agar

90h x 57w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

Establishing connections as well as a more precise understanding of information lying beneath the visible surface is an important part of the work of Meng Zhou, who never passes judgement himself, but questions our society and its structures.

 

Text by Roxane Fu