Photo as Object

March 12, 2016-April 16, 2016

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Artist / Cai Dongdong

Text / Gallery 100

Gallery 100 will launch Photo as Object – Cai Dongdong’s Solo Exhibition at Dunnan gallery on 12 March 2016. By deconstructing and reconstructing the photo images, Cai Dongdong tries to conduct experiments on the images, re-exploring the possibilities of current image contents, observing their extension, variation and neutralization, under the premise that the main components used for conveying the messages remain intact. The artist has re-developed the discarded photos and studied them repeatedly to perform the transformation. The symbols carried by the images have been re-edited or re-ordered, or been intervened by ready-mades. Cai’s works induce the audience to create a semantic association with the original images, slacking the connections between the images and the reality. In the oeuvre Shifted Moon (2015), the gleaming reflection of the lake recalls the snapping moment, while the spheroid of the moon in the night sky was arbitrarily cut off by Cai Dongdong and has been carelessly planted aside. The moon ergo becomes a fracture of the reality, and the poetic expression of “with the Moon, my shadow, and I, we’re three to have a drink beneath the night sky” has been reduced to nothing more than a wishful thinking. For the next oeuvre Off-Target (2015), an old photo shows the scene of an arching practice. A bamboo arrow is stuck in the center of the photo but not at the bull’s eye indicated by the coach in the image. Through this work, the artist acts as a spokesperson of the art to question the media and our times, and also makes a remark about his creative approach: “During the course of creating arts, we invariably find the ultimate approach of presentation beyond the scope of the predetermined goals. The non-purposiveness of art, or the constant attempts to eliminate the purposiveness, may be the real way to get closer to the truth.”

Cai Dongdong was born in Tianshui, Gansu Province, China in 1978. His works have been exhibited at many prestigious art institutions such as Today Art Museum (Beijing, China), Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (Beijing), Taikang Space (Beijing), OCAT Xi’an, Paris Photo (LA, USA), UNIDEE Art Foundation (Biella, Italy), Museum Folkwang (Essen, Germany), and Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, Russia). Cai was bestowed with the first prize of the 3rd Terna Contemporary Art Award in Italy, 2010.