Gallery 55 is proud to present Qiu Shijie’s second solo exhibition in Shanghai “Five Centimeters Above” from the 18th of March through the 10th of April, 2016. The exhibition is curated by independent critic/curator Wang Kaimei.
It is not “how” things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists. – Wittgensteinian
“Five Centimeters Above” consists of four pieces of artwork created by Qiu Shijie. They are presented here in this gallery although the place where the artist obtains his creativity and control is far away from this white cube.
The body of works presented in this exhibition are rooted in the artist’s keen observation of life around him. On the brink of the cities where the glamour shopping malls vanishes into the chaos of the rural order, there is another kind of life pursuit. People from different parts of China with different goals of life all gather here living side by side with the garbage on the streets and the rural scenic views outside the windows. Far away from the grandeur China Dream, they weave their own dreams of a better life from here.
With the special social and geographic location of such places as starting point, Qiu’s works are the juxtaposition of some found-goods and the sculpture of the domestic animals. The strange combinations of the familiar and the unfamiliar things bring a kind of dream-like sequence that maybe exist beyond our reality, even though an attempted escape from the earth gravity is stopped at five centimeters above the ground.
These four artworks have made up a scene of a happening. The artist has presented the riddles. It is up to the viewers to come up with answers and questions…
Qiu Shijie was born in China in 1970. He graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, majoring in Sculpture. He currently lives and works in Hangzhou.
