Mr Lei, Rain Rain Rain. 2018
Incorporating surrealist motifs and referencing the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch these pieces are an extension of my interest in movement, life and the human form. At a time when human/ environmental relationships seem increasingly precarious the symbolism of a solitary man in the thick of a great wilderness serves as a timely reminder of our impermanence. The visual organization of the piece plays with space and time and I hope will encourage you to take a moment to consider your own orientation to the world around you.
Overtone. 2017
Overtone is an immersive and sensory sound art installation consisting eight newly commissioned pieces. Zhou’s works focus on the overtones- sounds that you can only hear when you concentrate, specifically responding to the cultures, and histories of a Grade-I listed Anglican church, built in 1729 and its local area. The audience is invited to roam around the chapel to encounter sounds scents, and objects found locally, before calling a number at the end of a visit. The installation is a discussion of how histories and memories, presentness, and the future can be archived and re-used, kept and interpreted, predicted and received through an alternative way.
0.064g-Artroom. 2018
To spin a cocoon a silkworm must weave its delicate filament into a strong and protective shelter. To the artist, the cocoon, once constructed, both filters the view from outside and limits the space within. Each fibre of silk that forms the cocoon is at once delicate and fragile yet tensile and strong. Woven in such a way that complicates the notion of a simple start and end point, the cocoon – an endless network of links and bindings – acts both as a shield and as an incubator. And yet, while the cocoon seems claustrophobic and oppressive, it is also a site of metamorphosis and becoming.
Each strand of silk is a fragment of information, a trace that is capable of outliving its creator by millennia. Existing in the contemporary world, within manifold layers and networks of information, we experience a parallel condition to the chrysalis – surrounded by negotiated truths or breaking through to encounter endless possibilities.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by C.O.C.A.
At the heart of Meng Zhou’s work is a conversation between tradition and modernity. Through painting, sculpture and installation he attempts to merge and to transform classical Chinese symbolism and imagery using Western styles and techniques. His artistic project draws on poetic analogies of Chinese cultural history and myth that help to narrate his work. Although his work may seem figurative in parts his subjects are always borne out of fiction, composites drawn from a combination of dreamscapes, collected images and anatomical research. Through his paintings Meng is interested specifically in the oscillation between figuration and abstract gesture and drawing out the specific moment when comprehensible figures or forms immerge from amorphous mass.