Redefine: Multiple Perspectives and Possibilities in Network Era

Participating artists and groups
CAMP, Parker Ito, Kevin B. Lee, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Sissel Tolaas, Jun Yang

Research support
Li Liqiong + liu Jingbing
School of Visual Art and Design, GAFA

Cooperation Platform
LEAP

Curator
Ruijun Shen

The Internet has been widespread for just over two decades, and has already become indispensable in our lives. The Internet has made the flow of information more transparent and allowed for greater consolidation of resources, facilitating the partial disintegration of monopolies. With the emergence of new business and consumer models, the old systems of oversight and evaluation from the era of industrialization and standardization have changed in response. Diversity of standards, unique experiences, flexible identities and the spirit of sharing are the new experience brought to us by the Internet.

The Internet presents us with a multidimensional reality. It has broken down the barriers between different systems and regions, so that information from different systems can be found and presented between them. It can provide us with multiple or even contradictory perspectives for viewing the same facts. Because of the Internet’s cognitive method of “connecting everything,” the links between different things have been strengthened and highlighted. In this era, the individual is no longer isolated. The individual can use the Internet to interact with the outside world at will. The characteristics of the individual can, through this interaction, change at any time, and be continually redefined and updated through practice. Thus, the acceptance of multiple identities and variable standards has become crucial, a core condition for the production of diverse, unique individuals.

In this exhibition, we hope to set aside the series of questions raised by post-Internet phenomena to focus on two themes relating to the Internet, using these two entry points as a more creative approach to the understanding of these phenomena and to expanding our knowledge through action and practice. We will use the concept of “networks” as a curatorial approach, inviting artists, magazines, and institutions to join together, using such methods as artwork commissions, research group observations, exchange platforms between magazines and museums, joint research with the School of Visual Art and Design of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, publications, and Internet promotions to examine the concept of “networks.” Collaborating with Leap Magazine for the December 2015 issue and the “Times Museum Art on Track” program, we will present three works of the same conception by artist Sissel Tolaas in three different forms of presentation and on three different platforms to test the effects. The exhibition aims to explore the possibility of constructing our knowledge of the world through diverse, shifting conceptual perspectives, maintaining clarity and shaping individuality within a constantly shifting reality.

Guided tours: Every Saturday and Sunday, 3–3:30pm, December 19, 2015–January 31, 2016