C-Lab— Laboratory for Cultural Hybridization
Artists: CHENG Simin, ZHENG Lixuan, Lun Jia Le, Li Ming Kwong, Leung Lok Hei, XU Ziwei
Curators: HUANG Zirong, HU Lanyi, GAO Shuran, GAO boyuan
Introduction
C-Lab — Laboratory for Cultural hybridization is presented by the MA in Curating and Art History (MACAH) programme at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. The exhibition space will be designed as a cultural laboratory, bringing together the works of artists both from Hong Kong and mainland China: ZHENG Lixuan, CHENG Simin, LUN Jiale, LENUG Lok Hei, LI Ming Kwong and XU Ziwei to investigate the concept and process of cultural hybridization.
Cultural hybridization is the interaction and mutation between different cultures under globalization; in other words, cultural hybridization is a process that occurs within cultural subjects, involving the "deconstruction" and "reconstruction" of their own cultural systems; this process will constantly continue as the cultural subject itself develops. The works of these artists will assist people in exploring this process and encourage them to ponder the ideal state of cultural hybridization in the age of globalization.
Hong Kong is a multicultural city, because “Hong Kong culture linked in very specific ways with the rest of the world and therefore always renewed”. Our curatorial team would like to call our exhibition project “C-lab” because we aim to turn the exhibition space into a laboratory for an experiment of cultural hybridization. We also invite audiences to experience the process of cultural hybridization through their own observation of artworks and participation in the interactive activity of this Cultural Laboratory.
In order to illustrate each step of the cultural hybridization experiment, the exhibition is organized into three steps.
Step1: Deconstruction, the prerequisites of cultural hybridization
"Deconstruction” is the initial step in the process of “cultural hybridization.” At this step, what “Deconstruction” emphasizes is the parsing of a single trait of culture. This study of a single trait does not imply the negation and destruction of that culture, but rather an invitation to analyse one's own culture or that of others.
Step2: Reconstruction, the formation of cultural hybridization
Cultures are very unstable and the way they are constructed does not follow strict rules that could be expressed and understood easily. The best way to describe them would be something like a ‘free association’ of a multitude of things real and imaginary to build something entirely new.
Step3: Continuous, the state of cultural hybridization
Cultural hybridization is always ongoing and will never stop. In the third chapter of the exhibition, the final step of cultural hybridization, “Deconstruction” and “Reconstruction” are integrated to constitute the notion of “cultural hybridization” as a continuum.
CHENG Simin-Images of Signs (2022）
The second exhibit in STEP1 is a painting by Cheng Simin. Her paintings Images of Signs (2022）are composed of several partial human bodies. She paints each part of the human body separately but invites the viewer to appreciate them together. This is the central concept of “Deconstruction” in Step 1, that is, the deconstruction of culture is not the abandonment of all, but the ability to measure things by one's own standards.
ZHENG Lixuan-The Dream of a Butterfly (2021）
The film The Dream of a Butterfly (2021) is based on the dreams of artist ZHENG Lixuan, who one day dreamt that she turned into a butterfly, and then transformed from a butterfly into a statue of Buddha. This illusory dream is similar to the concept of “Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Butterflies”, through which she wants to express Zhuang Zi's concept of “dream are not distinguished, and object are not discerned（夢我不分，物我不辨）”. The butterfly and the Buddha statue are both interpretations of ZHENG Lixuan's own self. As a native of Chaoshan, Guangdong, the artist has been deeply influenced by various religions since childhood, and these influences are likened to a statue of the Buddha that cannot be seen clearly, while the butterfly is the artist's own personal emotions, which are disassembled by her, and are constantly fused and separated in the film, presenting to the viewer the artist's deconstruction of her own spiritual world.
Lun Jia Le-Taste of Tears (2023)
Lun Jia Le is an illustrator from Guangzhou. His artistic practice revolves around social construction and identity. In Taste of Tears (2023)，he takes elements from popular culture and reinterprets them as tools for social criticism. The complex and bright colors and complex contents in the work symbolize the state of "cultural hybridization" in the era of information explosion under globalization.
Li Ming Kwong-Snapshot of HK (2022)
Li Ming Kwong's “cultural blending” is innovative. Snapshot of HK (2022) creatively combines traditional Chinese ink art with western Polaroid photos to present traditional Chinese landscape painting in a new fusion. He believes that fixed principles and rules should be eliminated in order to invent more and more creative and integrated artistic ideas.
Leung Lok Hei-TV:20220522-20220509 (2022)
New communication technologies have spread like never before into the daily lives and inner imaginations of most of the world's inhabitants, bringing information to people everywhere. This information is constantly being sent and collected by different groups. With the change of viewing Angle, the cultural symbols sent out are constantly hybridizing with the audience. The images of TV:20220522-20220509 (2022) combine popular elements with street scenes to create a bustling urban space, with iconic street signs that seem to deliberately remind the place where the events took place.
XU Ziwei-Fishing Nets and Keys (2024)
This work consists of fishing nets and keys, with the key hanging above the net, which glitters and shimmers in the light. A key represents a shelter, while the fishing net vaguely connects them through numerous threads. One shelter for one migration, and one migration for one culture; the fishing net is like the path of migration, also how those different cultures link with each other——It has no beginning or end but always a middle, and multiplicities.
