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"Fakirs"
The validity of the Fakir today is challenged, debated and re-interpreted by the creative force of Liu Dao.
Individual creations reflect themes of confinement, existential alienation, urban transformation and illusion: Illusions whether actual, magical and those which are determined by artistic perception or limitations of the mind. The stage of the exhibition opening is to be set with acrobats, dwarves, giants, illusionists, seers, radical performance art: the floor and wall space covered with digitally assimilated images, original illustrations given life with new virtual technology which bear the fruit of the artists’ examinations of the unknown, perceived or real. Fakir is derivative … “of the Persian word, Faqr, a term which literally means 'poverty' yet holds a latent power in emotional, psychological and spiritual spheres ..An attitude of detachment towards the world, complete negation of the self, a voyage from the outward to the inward, from the exoteric to the esoteric…”. (Rikimi Madhukaillya)
Fakirs awakens the parameters of psychology, parapsychology (in particular hypnosis, hallucination, automatic writing and hyperesthesia), philosophy and cognitive science in a context of artistic expression. Two pivotal creations best represent the experimentation in the creative process and impulse behind the exhibitions inception. “Normative, Chains, Escape” and “Man on a Wire”, both signed by the Liu Dao collective.
With the former, a work displays the pixelization of a figure enchained in a neck to waist binding of iron links, rotating back and forth, struggling for freedom from the serpentine confine which supply imprisons him. A direct allegorical reference to the Master Illusionist & Escape artist, Harry Houdini -a modern Fakir of the twentieth century-,yet, on this occasion, his symbolic shadow cannot escape from the cyclic grasp of the sequenced movement nor the actual iron chains which impede freedom of movement and actual liberty. The enshrouded, tortured figure, is subject to the laborious Promethean cycle of a pending and perpetually failing liberty from condemnation. The latter, titled “Man on a Wire”, shows a man walking the precarious length of an invisible wire, yielding a wooden staff to maintain equilibrium. The sequence of the “funambule” carries in a repeated cycle where as the figure of the performance artist disappears from the one visual panel of LED, he begins to emerge from the second which lends for a pattern of “the beginnings being the determined end of an action”. The virtual absence of the support wire itself makes the creation somewhat comic as the actual precipice is not visually evident. The performer appears to be on solid ground yet physically exerts his-self with the same dramatic tension that one might experience being suspended a thousand meters above sea level. Man on a Wire correlates fragility, psycho-automatic impulse and the extenuation of courage in this visitation to one of the worlds’ classic performances, the tight rope walker, one devoid of illusion. In the realm of the real, is cognitive choice possible? Amongst the diverse creations to be exhibited for the first time to the public, these two are emblematic and well reflect the lucid intelligence of the Liu Dao collective in this thematic exploration; the third of a series of investigations into the potential of consciousness and creativity conducted at island6, the first being Synesthesia and the second, Placebo.
On the occasion of Fakirs, a unique environment has been thought of: divans, hookah, samovar and similar trappings reminiscent of the Mid-East will be open to the public. It is an attempt to contrast the climate of Shanghai with that of antiquity, the origins of the Indo-Persian region whose traditions denote a culture at once “mystical” as well as “metaphysical”. The public is welcomed to voyage into the diverse medium and mindscapes created by Liu Dao, immerse themselves in a festive evening of pageantry and performance, and experience a hybridism of cultural symbolism issued by emergent and established conceptual artists.
Artists: Meng Ni Beh 马明妮, Felix Beyreuther, Bing Bing 兵冰, Cai Duobao 蔡多宝, Thomas Charvériat, Nick Hersey, Kong Mosha 孔墨沙, Kerry Ann Lee, Li Lingxi 李翎溪, Liu Dao 六岛, Zane Mellupe, Tom Lee Pettersen, Piers Secunda 皮二丝, Rose Tang 罗丝唐, Wang Dongma 王东马, Wu Yandan 吴艳丹, Zhang Deli 张德丽
Curation: Thomas Charvériat and Zane Mellupe
Writer: Rikimi Madhukaillya & Rajath Suri
Vernissage: January 16th 2010 - 8pm
Dates: From January 16th 2010 to March 5th 2010
Venue: island6 Arts Center - 50 Moganshan Road, Bld #6, 2F, Shanghai
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