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What You Need to Know: On view through March 2, 2024, Beijing-based White Space is presenting a solo show of new and recent work by Chinese artist He Xiangyu (b. 1986). Based between Berlin and Beijing, He studied oil painting at Shenyang Normal University, earning his B.A. in 2008, and since has developed a practice devoted to examining and interrogating social and societal systems, structures, and relationships, as well as contemporary iconography. Some of his most notable early works leveraged scale and mass to achieve conceptual transformation, such as The Coca-Cola Project, begun in 2009 and completed in 2011, in which He boiled down 127 thousand bottles of Coca-Cola into a cola-ash. Within the present exhibition, He’s distinct capacity to experiment with medium and scale are brought to the fore, offering visitors the opportunity to explore and circumvent sculptural works that defy easy perception.
Why We Like It: Construction and structure are a highlight of He’s solo show with White Space. An undulating white metal casement featuring river stones individually set is juxtaposed with gigantic and human-scale figurative sculptures that allude to the thematic underpinnings of the show: the exploration of interactions and overlaps between East and West, and more specifically the lived experience associated with those overlaps. At once contemplative and meditative, He’s body of work shown in White Space serves as a conceptual starting point from which both artist and viewer can reflect on both the disjointed and harmonizing elements of Eastern and Western cultures, both historically and of today, offering insight into a potential new future.
According to the Gallery: “In his recent work, He revisits a series of sculptures originally crafted in response to the contemporary living conditions of Asians in the West. He reorients their conceptual focus around the notion of ‘identity archaeology.’ Examining the past and present from a near-future perspective, this body of work reflects the evolution in the artist’s thought process and execution, now situated in a broader temporal and spatial context. Contemplating the East as the origin of this expanded time-space, the artist explores how ancient dispositions and philosophies continue to influence people’s actions today, how present challenges shape future possibilities, and whether tomorrow’s vision can lead to a renewed understanding of the past and a critical reflection/correction of the present.”
See inside the exhibition below.
Installation view of “He Xiangyu” (2024). Photo: xf photography. Courtesy of White Space, Beijing.
Installation view of “He Xiangyu” (2024). Photo: xf photography. Courtesy of White Space, Beijing.
Installation view of “He Xiangyu” (2024). Photo: xf photography. Courtesy of White Space, Beijing.
He Xiangyu, detail of Circular Resistance (2023). Courtesy of White Space, Beijing.
He Xiangyu, Untitled (2023). Photo: xf photography. Courtesy of White Space, Beijing.
He Xiangyu, Untitled (2023). Courtesy of White Space, Beijing.
“He Xiangyu” is on view at White Space, Beijing, through March 2, 2024.