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Date
1996
Format
Exhibition Document
Materials
Texts and drawing printed on paper
Description
“Please don’t move” is an exhibition catalogue that is published under the co-authorship of Inga Svala Thorsdottir and Wu Shan Zhuan in Galerie der Stadt Essslingen, Germany. It consists of nine photoworks, the drawing and the English version of the chapter 15th of “Today No Water - The Power of Ignorance”, photoworks and artist notes for a project titled “Pulverization'' which is under the direction of Thorsdottir, and a biography of both artists. “Today No Water - The Power of Ignorance,” an important artist’s notes in the exhibition catalogue “please don’t move '', consists of eight sections. Each section has its subtitle in bold. The artist draws between the lines to illustrate his ideas. There are philosophical notes that are inspired from daily life, topics related to the collision of modern and traditional, western and eastern culture, significant terms in his ideology that are redefined by him from the 1984 edition of Xinhua Dictionary, and a recipe of dishes named “Today’s recipe” etc. Besides, by throwing questions to the readers in the first-person narrative, he engages the readers with philosophical discussions in depth. Throughout this artist's notes, Wu utilizes a combination of knowledge from natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts to demonstrate his thoughts. He also permeates his ideology, in the name of “Today No Water,” the intention of writing, the expectation on selling, and where “Today No Water” would belong. One of main features of Red Humor group, a vanguard group led by Wu Shanzhuan in the mid-1980s, is a “serious absurdity”, according to Zhou Yan, “Wu Shanzhuan is greatly mastered in the subject of absurdism, and this is determined by his unique personality, his attitude of treating life as a play, his intelligent and interesting way of speaking, and many other organic components of the characteristic of him as an individual." (Gao Minglu, Zhou Yan, Wang Xiaojian, Shu Qun, Wang Mingxian and Tong Dian, “Chinese Contemporary Art History: 1985—1986”, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1991, p.206) (Yifan Shang ‘25)
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