Advertisement
LIFE
LifestyleArts

Review: Galerie Perrotin's Forest of Illusions

In this summer exhibition, curator William Zhao selects three Chinese artists from the region's Sino-triangle: Cheng Ran (mainland China), Tsang Kin-wah (Hong Kong) and Yang Yi-shiang (Taiwan).

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Popular actress Carina Lau Ka-ling
John Batten



In this summer exhibition, curator William Zhao selects three Chinese artists from the region's Sino-triangle: Cheng Ran (mainland China), Tsang Kin-wah (Hong Kong) and Yang Yi-shiang (Taiwan). There is no obvious theme holding the exhibition together, but the artists are individually strong and allowed to fully utilise the gallery's three viewing spaces.

Tsang, who will represent this city at next year's Venice Biennale, has exhibited around the world over the past decade, including outings at the Lyon Biennial and Tokyo's Mori Art Museum.

Advertisement

His recent work is elaborate sound and video installations and he generally alludes to personal experiences of violence and hypocrisy, drawing on a strong social conscience and philosophical doubts.

The seven White Porn paintings on display are from his earliest explorations employing illusional painting with violence, and in this case sexual exploitation/titillation, as the subject. From a distance, these paintings appear purely white, but shockingly pornographic imagery slowly emerges with each step closer to the work.

Advertisement

Cheng's Always I Trust is his latest video and features popular actress Carina Lau Ka-ling speaking to an unseen person. Her narration is a sad and compelling monologue: the words of a spurned lover, lonely, jilted. She waits for replies to her sent emails, which are never answered.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x