shang

A series of illustrations of nonsense and mean nothing.

In my work, I’m looking at simple daily objects. I’m looking at how these objects and patterns can interact functionally. Within this framework, specific interesting functional interactions can lead to new specific kinds of conscious experiences: there’s an infinite range of possible functional interactions that may lead to new kinds of higher levels of consciousness. So, this is a huge field to explore for my entire life. The reality we see is just a tiny aspect of it. We are not the end all and be all.

https://youtu.be/8wPb0bCc-xg

My life is a fractured, split reality. And I constantly struggle in between. Observing deep into the reality and play with random daily objects is my favorite way to maintain my sanity.

Coming face to face with reality is terrifying. Otherwise it will make you question reality. Hunans constantly try to look for meanings and we attempt to blur the line. Just like how we used to want to fly. And we still do.

How far can it go?

A real crisis occurred earlier this year.

Many people was required to self-quarantine for days, or even months.

They have no other options but looking at the views outside of their rooms.

These are the views outside the window sent from people who were kept in quarantine .

By far. There are more than 500 windows from all over the world.

Try to turn on a light.

“In this series of videos, paintings and images, Shang Guo explores the intersection of fine art with modern internet culture. The pieces in this series are short vignettes designed to be viewed and shared via social media, each of which tells a basic narrative or visual metaphor. As an artist implanted in a foreign culture, Shang uses her art to create a universal language: these simple stories told through a purely visual medium are equally accessible to her native Chinese audience as they are to the domestic British, and further to a global audience, united by the global nature of the internet. Her universal language travels beyond the confines of the world of fine art, and into the frontier of social media, where the viewer becomes the curator and chooses what is worth sharing, and where content must by nature be accessible and innately consumable. In creating consumable content, she draws inspiration from traditional slapstick comedy, with visual punchlines creating a striking impression to underline the themes of each piece.”

Shang makes use of a mixed medium: oil painting is combined with cinematography and post production techniques. In this way, the static painting becomes an organic medium, capable of movement and of producing surprise. Visual illusions and contradictions arise from the modification of the paintings, and senses of perspective are created that would be impossible in painting. Visual tricks such as these seem natural in the often absurdist world that the artworks evoke.

The camera pans over the artwork and constrains the view to a single path and a single pace. In this way, the subjective experience of the viewer is made objective – the artist takes full control. Out of place in a traditional gallery, this is perhaps a necessity in the cyber world of easy consumption. Freedom of interpretation gives way to the creation of one single experience – but is this really a loss, when the average viewer chooses not to interpret at all?

Illustrations.

100 IDEAS. (2018)

ANOTHER 100 IDEAS. (2019)

300 IDEAS.(2020)

in order to boost communication?

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A Loop Story

Trying to simulate the state of an unconscious mind.

A perversion of a lawful, transcendental state of being.

Personal corruption.

realisation: you can only control you, you can’t control anything else, and even self control is illusory since we are impulse driven creatures.

It was the predatory desire/need for being awake and alert in the opposition and conflict with unnatural objects in chained to and surrounded by to express myself. In this case, the boundary of being asleep and awake is becoming more and more blurry and unclear.

Guo Shang 

 

Artist CV