Straight Line – Xu Qu Solo Exhibition
Visual Arts
Description
Description
Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong is proud to announce the opening of “Straight Line,” a solo exhibition for Xu Qu, on January 7, 2021. The show will feature works from Xu’s Currency Wars and Maze series made between 2016 and 2020. In these two series, Xu’s ideas intersect and run in parallel as he explores visual form.
In Currency Wars, Xu Qu chooses small details of banknote patterns from around the world, then he enlarges them dozens of times in his paintings. The patterns of the banknotes are significant as symbols of the financial and capital structures that serve political ones. After the patterns are chosen and enlarged, their symbolic and economic properties are removed, and they transform into the lines, spaces, colors, and other elements of abstract painting. Currency Wars is a work of art, and in the act of purchasing and collecting, this work becomes a commodity that circulates in the art system, mimicking market dynamics.
The Currency Wars paintings presented at Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong stem from the third series of renminbi banknotes issued by the People’s Republic of China. The series was circulated and used from 1962 to 2000, making it the longest-circulating series in the nation’s history. In those 38 years, China’s economy and society have changed drastically and these circulating banknotes bear stories rich with history. Xu Qu divides the banknotes into sub-series, based on whether they are new or old. The new banknotes have hard-edged, abstract forms, with straight lines and sharp corners. In contrast, similar designs on the old notes have blurrier edges. The addition of a projected effect makes the images indistinct and uncertain, creating a more expressive abstraction and more intense relief. New and old are two ends of a timeline that allows us to compare printing and painting, symbols and memories, financial characteristics and temporal backgrounds. Through this comparison, memories of a society and a historical period become identifiable.
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Indoor
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