Sensory Canvas

James Tapscott, Karina Smigla-Bobinski, Gaybird, Keith Lam, Hiroaki Umeda, Norimichi Hirakawa, Tobias Gremmler, WOW

“Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature: beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything”: according to Francis Bacon, the universe is an objective being which cannot be transformed through human will. One’s cognition of the world can only be obtained though perceptual experience from the objective outwards. Objects can be perceived only by human sensation. Therefore, sensation plays the role as the entry to reason. When technology, on the other hand, acts almost like another skin on contemporary people, the possibility of sensation can be released endlessly into an infinite sphere or even serve to create a new sensory system, and exploit the unpredictable reign of sense and sensation.

With an indefinable curiosity towards intangible and unknowable fields, artists often try to liberate all potential possibilities of imperceptible phenomenon from their stereotypes through cross-media practice and unique media types, guiding the audience to unlock their fixed preconceptions of the invisible and the inaudible.

Ming Contemporary Art Museum’s new media group exhibition Sensory Canvas is composed of two sets of topics in four categories, made up of nine works from eight artists. Form of Nature and Form of Motion show how artists visualize the invisible in nature and motion, through different media approaches such as kinetic installations, light pieces, simulation, and more, showcasing another perspective by reconstructing or deconstructing the existing. Stepping further towards extending imagination to all kinds of existence in the universe, Form the Nature and Form the Motion present a trans-nature sensation beyond general cognition by composing original formats into a hybrid status.

Chief Curator: Qiu Zhijie
Curator: Keith Lam, Olivia Ding
Organizer: Ming Yuan Group, Ming Contemporary Art Museum
Producer: Li Songjian, Ling Feifei
Support by: The Japan Foundation, Department of Culture and Education of the German Consulate General Shanghai

Opening Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-6pm