Solo Exhibition
White Space, Beijing, 2016-17
Download Exhibition PDF
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Introduction
The exhibition, whose title alludes to Jean Renoir’s film classic La Grande Illusion (1937), includes two groups of recent paintings, Guided Tour and New Folks, and the installation King of My Castle, which is an isolated walk-in room within the exhibition space.
In Guided Tour, Ce Jian leads the viewer through a course of site-specific paintings showing anamorphous versions of famous artworks, such as Velázquez’ 17th century portrait of Infanta Margarita, a view of Montagne Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne, a woodcut by Dürer from his artist tutorial Unterweysung der Messung (1525) and Duchamp’s last painting Tu M’ (1918).
While genres like the portrait or landscape are commonly accepted as ‘painting’, they also represent its obsolete function, whereas the groundbreaking abstraction of Mondrian and Stella or conceptualism of Polke and Duchamp reflect its historical discourse and self-understanding. By dictating ideal viewpoints, the artist ironically quotes a typical museum experience, with a guide telling you how to look at artworks.
Following her previous perspectival landscapes, these works take a further step in linking the flat medium to the viewer’s actual space. They don’t copy, but restage iconic paintings as virtual images, raising the question of what and where the painting is: Is it the image within or the composition on the canvas in front of you? It’s a question as old as painting’s illusionism itself – but in the context of today’s digital imagery, old optical techniques and perspectival distortions gain new relevance.
This is also the issue in the black box situation of King of My Castle, where geometric Platonic solids are shown as anamorphous constructions and wall paintings, creating a hallucinatory model of the closed subjective mind.
The series New Folks addresses concepts of the ‘other’ body, as opposed to the normal human (or the viewer him-/herself). The oversized figures are shaped and distorted by the role, culture and gender they represent – and despite the modern or grotesque portraiture, their poses still refer to traditional iconographies of social status as well as projected ideas of the other gender, the foreigner and the freak, famously represented by the Elephant Man.
In times where society, especially in Europe, is changing dramatically due to global migration and refugees, stereotypical images combined with xenophobic wariness are more present than ever. Those New Folks are curiosities, weird strangers and aliens, but they might also form some utopian portrait gallery of enhanced human beings with their anonymous, android-like appearance.
2016
cord, nails, acrylic, spray paint, tape, oil crayon, marker, black light
overall dimensions variable
installation view: solo exhibition “The Grand Illusion”, White Space Beijing, 2016-17
1 – Guided Tour (Velázquez), 2016
acrylic, spray paint, marker on canvas
180 x 200 cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
1 – Guided Tour (Cézanne), 2016
acrylic, spray paint, marker, colored pencil, oil pastel on canvas
130 x 180 cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
1 – Guided Tour (Dürer), 2016
acrylic, marker, crayon on canvas
130 x 190 cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
1 – Guided Tour (Polke), 2016
acrylic, marker, colored pencil, oil pastel on canvas
150 x 180 cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
1 – Guided Tour (Stella), 2016
acrylic, spray paint, marker, oil pastel on canvas
300 x 450 cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
1 – Guided Tour (Mondrian), 2016
acrylic, marker, colored pencil, oil pastel on canvas
140 x 140 cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
1 – Guided Tour (Duchamp), 2016
acrylic, spray paint, marker, colored pencil, oil pastel on canvas
120 x 450cm
2 – perspective view: “The Grand Illusion“, solo exhibition at White Space, Beijing, 2016
3 – floor plan of the installation at White Space:
red – painting on the wall
green – spectator’s position for perspective view
__________________
This group of paintings consists of seven pieces depicting different iconic works from the history of painting. Painted after imperfect digital images sourced from the internet, the motifs were further transformed and distorted as anamorphoses. Seven positions were marked on the exhibition room’s floor, instructing viewers to stand at specific points to look at each painting from a calculated distance. The guide offers a ‘correct view’ of the image, which you can choose to disregard by wandering away.
By taking the audience through a walk within the exhibition, the installation questions the concept of the ‘right’ way to perceive and interpret a painting. It also challenges our distanced yet familiar relationship with digitally reproduced artworks.
2016
acrylic, enamel, marker, crayon, oil pastel on canvas
300 x 150 cm
2016
acrylic, marker, oil crayon, colored pencil on canvas
120 x 120 cm
2016
acrylic, enamel, marker, crayon, oil pastel on canvas
190 x 150 cm
2016
acrylic, enamel, marker, crayon, oil pastel on canvas
200 x 600 cm
2016
acrylic, spray paint, marker, crayon and oil pastel on canvas
230 x 160 cm
2016
acrylic, enamel, marker, crayon, oil pastel on canvas
230 x 160 cm
2015
acrylic, spray paint, marker, crayon, oil pastel on canvas
230 x 160 cm