Guo Gong 郭工
“Art itself is a language, one that precedes linguistics but still speaks to people. Sometimes, its accuracy and conciseness far exceed our everyday language and written expressions. ”
— Guo Gong
Guo Gong is a renowned Chinese contemporary artist born in 1966. He is currently based in Beijing.
An immeasurable number of people have felt the turbulence in this second decade of the 21st century. After all, historically, every generation experiences destabilising changes; very few people really live their lives in entirely peace. Like most things, these changes are dual-bladed; good news for some, bad news for others.
The origin of the word “news” in Chinese has interesting cultural roots. When the Yang departs and the Yin arrives, it is called “xiao” (消), and when the Yin departs and the Yang arrives, it is called “xi” (息). This rise and fall of Yin and Yang between the heavens and the earth combine to form “news” (消息). News always comes from afar, yet its contents often close in; news often comes from reality, yet it also often emblematic of something that is not quite material. Contemporary art is also a form of “news”; a reflection of the spirit of the times; or ‘zeitgeist’, as German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel puts it. In this line of thinking, every era has its spirit; its contemporary art, its good news. Guo Gong (郭工), in this anonymous writer’s opinion, can considered as one of the generators of the aforementioned “good news”.
As an installation artist, Guo Gong’s works are incredibly rich and involve a spectrum of materials. He disdains terms such as “cultivation”, “Zen”, “self-replication”, “symbolic politics”; to him, concepts should not be an excuse for repetitive creation. He yearns, instead, to materially communicate with our vibrant world. He reaches neither for self-establishment nor flaunting, but for actions that experience and chase the fullness of nature. Each attempt is unknown until on the edge of the creation’s very precipice, technical difficulties unforeseen: this, to him, is part of the process of artmaking. For him, art remains this.
In the same years he completed works such as “Countdown,” “Heart Sutra,” and “White Light,” Anish Kapoor’s exhibitions in 798 Art Zone Beijing were sparking ongoing discussions about shock value. Yet, these discussions often tended to become vague due to delays in the transmission of art theory. At that time, Guo Gong’s works had already embodied his profound understanding of installation art: the most vital aspect of installation not being forward-looking innovation, but tracing history: breaking the starting point of art as first re-asserted by Duchamp, returning to the older, core origins of art. It is thanks to this train of thought that, firstly, Guo Gong turns “appropriation” into “creation”, manifesting pure, inter-reflective material relationships. Secondly, he transcends the abstract constraints of “concepts”, transforming pure conceptual, sociological, or anthropological criticism into an emphasis on a comprehensive system through which people are able to perceive, integrated with lyricism and based on visual core rather than aesthetic taste.
Installation art bears its significance in Chinese contemporary art as often expressing social, political, historical, or other cultural sentiments. Fundamentally, these expressions follow the logic of instrumental rationalism, using the guise of rationality to turn art into a tool. From the offset, Guo Gong’s creations are anti-instrumental and humanistic. His works embody a higher level of “truth,” profound in its refusal to conform to any existing theoretical frameworks. True artistic creation, to him first and foremost, is the creation of ideas rather than the adherence to theory. In this regard, Guo Gong is a rare artist who embodies the creation of ideas; rather than that of cultural adherence.
Past Exhibitions:
2023
Reinventing tangible, Contemporary Art Season, Shenzhen Bay No.1 • Wan Hui, Shenzhen, China
Seeking the city, Datong Contemporary Art Season, Historic Cultural District, DONG NAN VILLE, Datong, China
2022
Rebirth-Encounter with Nature, Cloud House, Beijing, China
The second Public Art Exhibition in Nanhai, Fo Shan, China
2021
Exhibition of GDMOA Annual Artist Nomination, Guangzhou, China
The 3rd Intentional Public Art Invitational Exhibition of Hangzhou Bay New Zone, Ningbo, China
2020
Prejudice: Guo Gong Solo Exhibition, OCT Boxes Art Museum, Shunde, China
Ode to Great Beauty – Memories and Dialogues with Yungang Grottoes, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, China
2019
The 2nd Pingyao International Sculpture Festival, Pingyao, China
Neither East Nor West, The second Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, the MTSU Todd Art Gallery, USA
2018
Qie-Wen: Guo Gong Solo Exhibition, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
XIAN Contemporary Art 2018, Xian Art Museum, Xian, China
Art Trend Today, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
AURA and VITALITY: 12Oriental Aesthetic Samples in Contemporary Art, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China
2016
Breath, Nanjing Museum , Nanjing , China
Confronting Anitya – Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art, Kunstkreis Johanniterkirche , Stadt Feldkirch, Austria
2015
Dunhuang – Song of Living Beings, Shanghai Himalayas Museum, Shanghai, China
Confronting Anitya – Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art, Musée de Salagon, France
Confronting Anitya – Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art, Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, Germany
ART Basel-Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2013
One Pine, NUOART, Beijing, China
Confronting Anitya – Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art, Palazzo Michiel, Venice, Italy
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