Zhou Yan Contemporary Chinese Art Archive 周彦当代中国艺术档案
Preview
![image preview](https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1108/preview.jpg)
Date
1994
Format
Photograph
Materials
Light, wooden strips, metals
Description
This installation is mainly comprised of a half-enclosed cylindrical space, with several wooden wall-boards of the space falling down/out pendently to lend opening to the space. The half-open, half-hermetic design of the work might play into the symbolism of individuals' interactions with the complex social network -- channeling, but selectively, incompletely. Inside of the space sets an illuminating light bulb; beneath it is a glass jar containing water and living fish. The captions on the jar reads "start from here (in German)"; "start from here" -- Hu JianPing may allude to the origin of human intelligence, the exploration and desire to think. From the space center (light and jar) extends out the radiating wooden boards. On the boards severals archaic symbols and signs inscribed. These symbols of primordial human intelligence write the linearity of human's progress in intelligence, especially in the sense of science. (HU, On "Fortune Teller's Booth in Greenwich Village", 1994, available on ZHOU Document) (Jerry Wu'23).