Inga Svala Thorsdottir & Wu Shanzhuan: From Paper To Paper
Inga Svala Thorsdottir + Wu Shanzhuan鈥檚 exhibition 鈥渇rom paper to paper鈥� opens at Long March Space on 4th November 2023. The exhibition has been designed by curator and researcher Liu Tian, the artists鈥� long-time collaborator.
Unlike their more project-based exhibitions previously showcased at Long March Space such as 鈥渒uo xuan鈥� (2011), 鈥淐AUSE AND EXAMPLES PROJECTED FROM IT鈥� (2017), and 鈥淭oday Became a Holiday鈥� (2019), the content of this exhibition consists of around 600 creative sketches on A4 paper selected from various stages in Thorsdottir and Wu鈥檚 long artistic career spanning more than thirty years.
Each sketch can be considered a work of art in its own right and often seems at once a draft, a set of notes, a drawing, a document, and a daily record. Transcending the notion of 鈥渁rtwork鈥� narrowly conceived, these A4 sheets embody a range of mutable stages in the creative process of a work: antecedent, birth, embryo, prototype, essence, and excess. It is precisely this distinctive quality that allows the unique use of writing, sketch, daubs of color, narrative and planning in each piece to reveal modes of thinking, feeling and tribute that are complex, esoteric, and even absurd.
Furthermore, in the context of the accumulated achievements of this artistic duo, the around 600 pieces of A4 paper in this exhibition are but the tip of a giant iceberg. In their almost forty years art career, they have continued to build a vast, complex and coherent system that integrates the philosophical, visual, imaginative and creative.
In this sense, these A4 sheets of paper are a series of succinct insights or cross-sections that combine to form an abbreviated snapshot of the expansive vista that is the artists鈥� career. The pieces act as an 鈥渋ndex鈥� of sorts that allows us to get an overall impression of these important artists whose complexity and prolificacy has previously made acquiring comprehensive knowledge of their artwork so difficult. We can look out over the expanding topography of their artistic output, described by the artists in terms of a 鈥渟ubway鈥� system, before stopping at a specific 鈥渟tation鈥� to delve into an instance of the creative ingenuity and consistent compassion that characterizes their work.
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Inga Svala Thorsdottir + Wu Shanzhuan鈥檚 exhibition 鈥渇rom paper to paper鈥� opens at Long March Space on 4th November 2023. The exhibition has been designed by curator and researcher Liu Tian, the artists鈥� long-time collaborator.
Unlike their more project-based exhibitions previously showcased at Long March Space such as 鈥渒uo xuan鈥� (2011), 鈥淐AUSE AND EXAMPLES PROJECTED FROM IT鈥� (2017), and 鈥淭oday Became a Holiday鈥� (2019), the content of this exhibition consists of around 600 creative sketches on A4 paper selected from various stages in Thorsdottir and Wu鈥檚 long artistic career spanning more than thirty years.
Each sketch can be considered a work of art in its own right and often seems at once a draft, a set of notes, a drawing, a document, and a daily record. Transcending the notion of 鈥渁rtwork鈥� narrowly conceived, these A4 sheets embody a range of mutable stages in the creative process of a work: antecedent, birth, embryo, prototype, essence, and excess. It is precisely this distinctive quality that allows the unique use of writing, sketch, daubs of color, narrative and planning in each piece to reveal modes of thinking, feeling and tribute that are complex, esoteric, and even absurd.
Furthermore, in the context of the accumulated achievements of this artistic duo, the around 600 pieces of A4 paper in this exhibition are but the tip of a giant iceberg. In their almost forty years art career, they have continued to build a vast, complex and coherent system that integrates the philosophical, visual, imaginative and creative.
In this sense, these A4 sheets of paper are a series of succinct insights or cross-sections that combine to form an abbreviated snapshot of the expansive vista that is the artists鈥� career. The pieces act as an 鈥渋ndex鈥� of sorts that allows us to get an overall impression of these important artists whose complexity and prolificacy has previously made acquiring comprehensive knowledge of their artwork so difficult. We can look out over the expanding topography of their artistic output, described by the artists in terms of a 鈥渟ubway鈥� system, before stopping at a specific 鈥渟tation鈥� to delve into an instance of the creative ingenuity and consistent compassion that characterizes their work.
Artists on show
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Inga Svala Thorsdottir +聽Wu Shanzhuan鈥檚 exhibition from paper to paper聽opens at Long March Space on November 4, 2023.
Long March Space presents "from paper to paper: Inga Svala Thorsdottir +聽Wu Shanzhuan"聽in Beijing.
