Vacuum

Curator: Weiwei

Understanding Zhou Meng's work

first requires understanding his education and life experiences in England.

This background shaped the core of his early creations,

which predominantly used human figures as symbolic elements

to explore the synesthesia between individuals and the external world.

As Zhou Meng accumulated more natural objects,

in recent years,

he has drawn inspiration from myths, natural environments, and folklore from various regions.

Through different mediums such as installations, imagery, paintings, and sculptures,

he portrays the traces left by the influences and impositions of different mainstream cultures.

Zhou Meng situates the exploration space of his artistic creation "Vacuum,"

as a reflection on artificial light and the linear order adhered to in contemporary urban settings.

Through the chaotic space of nonlinear narratives,

the artist employs fragments of "objects" from different times, spaces, geographies, and civilizations,

concealing or embedding them,

thereby placing human generations and their living environments within a broader cosmic time frame.

This bears witness to the rise and fall of human civilization and the melancholy of life,

as French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud puts it:

through the overlay and deduction of drifting pasts, presents, and futures,

generating a visual "archaeological image of time."

From exploration of the cosmos to the humanities,

meteorites become materials,

materials become weapons,

and weapons become games.

The exhibition "Vacuum" humorously dissolves some anthropocentric concepts,

teaching reconciliation with nature and time.

Within this "black box" constructed by the artist,

one can rediscover the overlapping echoes of civilization,

the perpetual vitality of nature,

and humanity's place therein.

The Desirer and the Victim

61h x 46w cm

Silent Fire

61h x 46w cm

With no attachment, Nothing remains

61h x 46w cm

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work addresses issues of ecology, cultural heritage, notions of transition and transformation.

Working across installation, moving image, painting, and sculpture,

my work examines my reflection on human responsibilities

to the cultural and ecological environment, and our shared heritage.

Working with found materials, natural curiosities, traditional and more modern media,

and drawing on mythologies and folklore my work

addresses the impacts of ecology, cultural heritage and tradition on modern subjectivities.

 By interested in borrowing, bricolage and pastiche,

I am interested in drawing out moments of conversation

and of conflict between tradition and modernity to illuminate where we are now.

The works that I create are composites

drawn from a combination of dreamscapes, material culture, and myth,

always oscillating between figuration and abstraction.

Accident and the unexpected invariably inform the direction of my work.

I envisage each interaction with materials

as a kind of journey rather than a translation of form,

and I am constantly drawn back to the tactile nature of my materials.