Date | July 19 – Aug 17, 2014
Vernissage | July 19, 2014(Sat) 3pm
Venue | Asia Art Center Taipei II｜No.93, Lequn 2nd Rd., Taipei 104, Taiwan
The wall that led Ying Tianqi out of Xidi Village to Traces of Centuries and then encounter Piet Cornelies Mondrian in the West
Ying Tianqi, who has been consecutively invited to participate in Venice Biennales from 2011, has paid keen attention to China’s architecture from as early as in 1986. Having discovered the Wannan ancient village of Xidi in China, Yang invested eight years to create Xidi Village series, which gave Xidi tremendous publicity as a must-see tourism destination, and Xidi was included by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Since 2011, Ying Tianqi’s Traces of Centuries series relies on the rich tapestry of traditional Chinese heartland materials, his deft use of minimalism and semiotic exploration through collage and color illustration in mixed-media.
Traveling between Europe and his homeland often puts Ying in time-space confusion, “I am particularly inspired by Piet Mondrian, the representative figure of abstract painting in the West. My work series, however, is different in that in the middle of each work you’ll find a traditional Chinese window frame – that is the root of Chinese culture.” From Xidi Village to Encounter Piet Cornelies Mondrian, Ying explained: “’Wall’ symbolizes a media for communicating cultures and ideas, it represents ‘me’ in this concept.” As the Chinese economy has continued its unprecedented streak of impressive growth through the start of this new century, Ying ponders the balance between the future of a nation and whereabouts of traditions. The “Spirit of the East” has indeed led Ying Tianqi away from geographical confinement, yet closer to his own cultural heritage.