Duration: April 20th - May 31st, 2019

Open Hours: 11:00 - 20:00

Venue: Kui Yuan Gallery, No.9, Xuguyuan Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou (广州市越秀区恤孤院路9号 逵园艺术馆)

Nearby metro station: Dongshankou, Line 1 or 6

An exhibition titled ‘Eyes on Fire’ by Guangdong artist Xu Weibo is going to be held at the Kui Yuan Gallery, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou between April 20th and May 31st.

Born in 1987 in Shantou City, Guangdong, Xu Weibo graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2011 and is now living and working in the province.

The exhibition ‘Eyes on Fire’ is Xu Weibo’s second solo exhibition after his first one ‘To Be Not To Be: Xu Weibo's Ink Arts’ held at the Shang Rong Gallery in Guangzhou two years ago. He has also joined a few group exhibitions around the country since 2015.

Why would Xu Weibo choose fire as the theme and symbol of his works? Sun Xiaofeng, the academic director of the exhibition, explains the reasons in the foreword. He says,

Cracking Song / Ink on silk, gold foil 50x74cm 2018 by Xu Weibo. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]

“There are countless Chinese and foreign classical and literary allusions with regard to the imagery and symbol of fire. There are also many stories related to fire in Chinese history, a big fire broke out and led to a new wave of changes, illuminating a historical turning point. Although fire is elusive and unpredictable, ‘a single spark can start a prairie fire', the greatness of fire has been witnessed by history. The use of fire has great significance for the development of human society. Fire has changed the primitive state of eating animals raw, changed human being’s food structure and thus prolonged the life of primitive people and promoted social development.”

“Xu Weibo’s choice of fire as the theme and symbol of his works requires the support of the cultural system of the image and symbol of fire as the basis, so that to avoid falling in simplistic novelty hunting for diagram. The diversity of techniques stems from his multidimensional considerations in the study and expression of the symbol of fire. He captures the instantaneous image of fire through multiple angles, techniques and media.”

“For him, the fire seems to fit the Chinese aesthetic pursuit of being between ‘like and not like’. In the free play and visual experience, fire is an excellent balance point. Of course, Weibo’s fire also bears secular auspicious meanings — prosperity and good fortune, suggesting that ‘this person will be popular’ or ‘to cause a good sensation’.”

“Interestingly, water and fire are the opposites, but Xu Weibo draws fire with water, and there is more dialectical meaning in it.”

Fire And Wind / Ink on silk, gold foil 38.5x40.5cm 2018 by Xu Weibo. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]

Period: Until May 26th, 2019

Entry Fee: ￥30

Venue: 19F Main Exhibion Hall, Guangdong Times Museum

Nearby metro station: Exit D, Huangbian Station, Line 2

“The Ridge in A Bronze Mirror” is an allegory of contemporary archeology that takes the archaic medium of bronze mirror to project a speculative rhetoric, a topography of conflict and a whirlpool of untimely images.

Zhou Tao, South of the Mountains, 2019

single channel 4K video with sound

Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space

Unlike glass, bronze cannot produce a perfect representation; and the mirror could be an object carried over from the distant past as one brought back from a distant future. Designated as means of self-referentiality, “The Ridge in A Bronze Mirror” dwells on the unconsummated, in the hope of articulating the unspeakable of a certain locale.

Zhou Tao spent nearly two years in an eco-industrial park at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains. The result is a rich repertoire of images that swiftly alternate between natural landscapes of sandstorms, dust clouds and the changing seasons, and realistic portraits of humans and other species fighting for survival in a state of exception.

“The White-Haired Man”

2019, installation with drawings and furniture, dimension variable

Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space

For the artist, every act of image-making is a direct confrontation with reality, and the perceptions, feelings and memories engaged by the filming process can be converted through and into images, which have the potential to connect the human eye with the body, and to revise a world heavily mediated by technology. Human agency is not only manifested in transforming the external world, but can also be exercised by preserving the internal, poetic space. The coupling of realism and romanticism creates a mesmerizing tension in Zhou Tao’s work.

Greeting Start of Summer

Checking one’s weight

Eating eggs

Egg Competitions

Take care of the heart

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Start of Summer (Chinese: 立夏), the 7th term of the year, begins on May 6 and ends on May 20 this year.

Start of Summer signals the transition of seasons. On this day, the sun’s rays reach an angle of 45 degrees to the earth The temperature will rise quickly during this period, yet in Northern China weather remains mild, not tropical.

Here are five things to learn about the Start of Summer.

Greeting Start of Summer

The term Start of Summer was originated at the end of the Warring States Period (239BC). Since it is a crucial time for the harvest of summer crops such as wheat and rape, ancient Chinese emperors in different dynasties attached great importance to the Start of Summer.

In the Zhou Dynasty (1050-221 BC), the emperor led his officials to stage a welcome rite for the Start of Summer and encouraged his residents to seize the key time to do farm work. It’s said that most of the decorations were arranged in the color red, including the emperor and the officials’ dress, the jade pendants, the horses and the flags, in order to show respect to the god of summer and pray for a good harvest.

Checking one’s weight

A basket suspended from a beam is used to weigh a child.[Photo/people.com.cn]

The custom of weighing people at the Start of Summer originated from the Three Kingdoms Period (220-180) and prevails in South China today. It was believed this practice would bring health and good luck to the people weighted.

After lunch on the day of Start of Summer, people would suspend a stool or basket from a beam. The young and old took turns to get weighed while the person calculating the weight would offer good wishes and auspicious words. It is said those who were weighed would stay healthy in the hot summer and those who weren’t would suffer illness.

Eating eggs

In ancient China, people believed a round egg symbolized a happy life and eating eggs on the day of Start of Summer was a prayer for good health. They put leftover tea into boiled water together with eggs and the original “tea egg” was created. Later people improved cooking methods and added spices to the eggs to make them taste delicious. Today tea egg has become a traditional snack in China.

Egg Competitions

Eating eggs and playing egg competitions is an ancient custom.[Photo/Xinhua]

As an old Chinese saying goes “hanging an egg on children’s chest can prevent them from getting summer diseases,” parents will prepare boiled eggs and put them in a knitted bag before hanging them on their child’s chest.

When at school, children gather together to play egg competitions by colliding each other’s eggs in pairs and the one whose egg is not broken wins.

Take care of the heart

According to Chinese traditional medicine, Start of Summer is a key time to moisten the heart. When the weather grows hotter dampness and heat can affect human health. Food rich in vitamins and cool in nature is highly recommended. Vegetables, such as cucumber, tomato, watercress and celery and fruits that include watermelon, pear and strawberry are top recommendations.