Cathy's Art Diary

Confusing exhibition at White Cube of new work by He Xiangyu. I might have understood the work better if I had had time to watch the film “The Swim” which was at the heart of this show. The other works were made while Xiangyu made this film and reflected some of the themes and ideas. The film looks at his hometown which lies on the river which marks the border of China and North Korea. Evidently it ends with the artist swimming across the river. The exhibition included a video work which focused on this swim. I did like a series of small pieces of scrap metal scavenged from factories in North Korea which were sold to Chinese traders. They are woven into balls or   flattened so they could be smuggled across the border. These were shown with a video of the artist’s hands recreating some of the shapes which elevated them to be mini-sculptures. The originals were hung round the walls of the white room with the reproductions of them on the floor. Closes 8 April 2018 ...

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of work by Chinese conceptual artist He Xiangyu. I can sometimes find conceptual art a bit annoying and lacking in craftsmanship but I loved some of the work in this exhibition. Well in particular I loved the life sized deflated tank made of leather! I am not too sure what it was saying but it was a fascinating object. It was beautifully made and very detailed and I loved the honeycomb tread on the wheel chains. The lovely smell of leather added to the whole effect and made you realise how rarely smell is a factor in art. I wasn’t so convinced by the pink room with casts of what he felt feeling the inside of his mouth with his tongue looked like. I think it got a bit lost in translation!