Site for public art commission: Longtang Poet Society (龍塘詩社)
公共艺术项目展出场地: 龙塘诗社
Chen Shaoxiong to inaugurate the first Public Art Commission at Lingnan Tiandi, Foshan
CHEN SHAOXIONG: COLLECTIVE MEMORY- FOSHAN
EXHIBITION DATES AND VENUE
Launch date reception: 26th November, 2013
Completion ceremony: 22nd December, 2013
Press visit: Available by appointment between 26th November and 22nd December, 2013
Venue: Lingnan Tiandi, Tiandi Road, Chancheng, Foshan, Guandong Province
FOSHAN- Lingnan Tiandi is delighted to inaugurate its first public art project with a new commission produced by D3E Art Ltd, an art consultancy based in Hong Kong and titled Collective Memory – Foshan by renowned Chinese artist Chen Shaoxiong. Originated from Shantou and trained in printmaking at the Guangzhou Fine Arts Academy, Chen Shaoxiong utilizes the urban space to reflect on both the physical and psychological containment as a result of modernization, and addresses its impact on humanity. Chen’s mode of artmaking is site specific, often turning a loaded subject into something light-hearted for the audience to experience.
As in the case of Lingnan Tiandi, which is typical of many large scale real estate development projects in China, the relocation of people and physical alternations to the land undoubtedly pose a huge challenge for the developer to piece disparate historical fragments back together as something coherent and sustainable for a community. Intrigued by such social displacement synonymous with urban development, Chen states: “I want to find possibilities in seemingly hopeless things. The more hopeless they appear, the more I want to find possibilities in them, to find that there is still hope.”
Taking advantage of the unique heritage site at the Longtang Poetry Society originally built by Li Zhaoji (李兆基), the founder of Li Chung Shing Tong (李眾勝堂), situated in the heart of the development of Lingnan Tiandi – a location once known to be the traditional and important gathering place of intellectuals and ink painters from Foshan, Chen will present three large scale monochromatic paintings which depict Foshan’s recognizable landmarks. One of the artworks will be on permanent display and two artworks will be on temporary loan and housed inside the restored building. Started in 2004, Chen’s Collective Memory series means to subvert digital photography back to its more rudimentary form of pixels of different sizes; by inviting the people who are living in the depicted place to assist in the creation of the work, the artist is able to enhance the human connection within each work. Chen states: “Everyone has memory about the environment where he stays…I use human being’s fingerprints instead of chemical: this is a technique in between the photo darkroom and painting production, and also the memory of collectivity towards its living space. In this modern time, the changing of environment is faster than the changing of human being’s memory.”
Using ink and requiring over 70,000 local Foshan inhabitants’ fingerprints to be printed on the actual canvas, Collective Memory – Foshan is a public art initiative that aspires to counter our collective amnesia with regard to the changes to our environment as a result of modernization. The production process engages the local residents to participate in a communal action of finger printing on the canvas, thereby transforming a private action often associated with identification and surveillance into a public action of recovering a common past. At the same time, the participants are bearing witness to the realization of an artwork. This project is not meant to be a nostalgic statement of the past. Chen encourages us to ponder the temporal links between the past, present and the future, and further, to take into account our individual recollection as being the common bridge. Collective Memory symbolizes a collective desire to look to the future and yet preserve the present; it turns a seemingly hopeless situation into something constructive, in the hope that it can to secure an eternal capsule for the future generations, who face myriad unpredictable changes.
Artist Statement
Collective Memory- Foshan
I have chosen specific landmarks that live in the memories of the people of Foshan, and images which serve as the indelible marks of a bygone era as the subjects for the creation of this series called Collective Memory- Foshan.

I have juxtaposed the Rotating Palace Hotel (旋宮酒店) against the Renshou Ruyi Buddhist Pagoda (如意塔) ,the two pagoda-like structures. The pagoda is a spiritualsymbol of the Buddhist culture while the Rotating Palace Hotel manifests the liberated materialistic desire of men after consumerism emerged and began to prevail in the Chinese society in the early 80s.

Both the Longtang Poet Society (龍塘詩社) and the Liang’s Garden (梁園) used to be the places of entertainment for the elite literati class at that time. The Longtang Poet Society building imitates colonial architecture, demonstrating the strong influence of Western aesthetics of the early 20th century, while the Liang’s Garden is a manifestation of the aesthetics of traditional Chinese garden design.
The People’s Stadium (人民體育場) is constructed in a typical socialist architectural style. It was built at a time during which a popular mass movement called the “Development of Sports Culture” (發展體育) had been launched in China. Last but notleast, the Ancestral Temple (祖廟) was once neglected by people as it was regarded as asymbol of feudalism and superstition. By setting these landmarks alongside each other, not only can the collective memories of the Foshan people be recalled, but it can also engage the individual residents, enabling them to bind their fragmented memories together.
The Rotating Palace Hotel and Renshou Ruyi Buddhist Pagoda symbolize two different kinds of beliefs. The first one represents materialism, while the latter one represents the abandonment of a secular life. The Longtang Poet Society and Liang’s Garden are both cultural symbols. They illustrate the encounters between local and colonial cultures, an issue that still occurs in the present day. The People’s Stadium and the Ancestral Temple symbolize politics. They demonstrate different ideological developments in history, showing how people were influenced due to realpolitik.
Under the unique social transformation of Chinese society due to the rapid urban development as a result of economic globalization, Chinese urbanites inevitably experience enormous changes to their environments. Because of this, they have to acquire a much larger capacity for memory than that of their ancestors. My creation of the Collective Memory series is motivated by the people’s tendency to embrace the new environment as well as the nostalgia for the fading scenery which is embedded in their emotions. I would like to invite all local inhabitants who share these common memories to leave their fingerprints on this work as a way to acknowledge their recollection and nostalgia of the depicted objects.
About Chen Shaoxiong
Born in Shantou, Guangdong province, China, and graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1984, Chen Shaoxiong was a founding member of the “Big Tail Elephant Group” of conceptual artists in Guangzhou in the 1990’s. Today, he works both independently and collaboratively as a member of an Asian artist collective called “Xijing Men” as well as another Chinese artist collective called “Project without Space.” He currently lives and works in Beijing.
His work was featured in the Venice Biennale 2003, Guangzhou Triennial 2005, and Shanghai Biennale 2002. His works have also been exhibited in PS1 Museum, the International Center of Photography in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Hamburger bahnhof- Museum für Gegenwar in Berlin, and Tate Liverpool. He has selected to be one of the Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows in 2013.
Chen’s recent exhibitions include a solo exhibit at the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 2012; a solo show at the PARA/SITE art space, Hong Kong, 2008. He has also participated in the Gwangju Biennale 2012, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 2009, Aichi Triennale 2010, Nagoya, Japan, and the 10th Lyon Biennale, 2010.
Chen’s works are widely collected by renowned Chinese and overseas institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK,M+, Hong Kong, China, Guangdong Museum of Art, China, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, USA, China Minsheng Bank, China, Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Switzerland, and Haudenschild Collection, USA.
Chen’s works will be featured in the exhibition “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China” held during 11 December 2013 to 6 April 2014 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.
About D3E Art Ltd
D3E Art Ltd. is an art consultancy with a mission to educate, promote, and showcase Contemporary Asian Art. The artists whom D3E Art promotes are at the forefront of Contemporary Art – they are artists who constantly experiment with new mediums, new forms of expression, and who have broken through their own barriers of language and culture to become established figures within the International Art World. Through both private and public exhibitions, and increasingly through collaborative public art installations, D3E Art is committed to creating an ongoing international awareness and appreciation for Contemporary Asian Art.
