The largest and most ambitious undertaking for UCCA in recent and somewhat distant memory, ON | OFF: China's Young Artists in Concept and Practice is now showing at the 798 gallery, and it's a jumbled, sprawling miasma of sarcastic and sincere youthful voices crying out in… hmmm… misery, jubilation, suffering, joy, triumph, frustration, excitement, and boredom. The world is wonderful; The world is shit.
There's a deflated tank:
And a bubble machine blowing bubbles on a electrified fence:
And a video of a girl sawing shoes in half and putting them on a birthday cake:
And more, more, more. Here's a big picture gallery tour of what's on inside.
Click here for SmBj's ON|OFF Slideshow. The Background: Curated by Bao Dong and Sun Dongdong, ON | OFF is an effort "to effectively document a new generation of Chinese artists born after 1975 who have grown up in a society and culture beset by binaries, constantly toggling between extremes.” The exhibition is comprised of 50 commissioned works by 50 artists and artist groups in China, including Chen Zhe, Hu Xiaoyuan, Jin Shan, and more.
You should go if you want to. Pretty staggering stuff. Here's more info on the exhibition as a whole and the planned tertiary activities. ON | OFF: China's Young Artists in Concept and Practice is on until April 14 at UCCA. Here's the exhibition details.
