randian - Liang Ban “Landscape Browser”

2017.01.07 Sat, by Translated by: Benny Shaffer

Liang Ban “Landscape Browser”

De Sarthe Gallery, Beijing (328-D Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, 100015, Beijing, China), Dec 9, 2016–Feb 16, 2017

In the main hall lies an installation featuring a scaled-down four-meter-high reproduction of Mount Rushmore, which occupies one-third of the space; this is a UV flatbed print on wood board. In this work titled “Evening Rambles”, Liang Ban presents a close-up of the four presidents, and this is an image that lacks a “landscape” perspective: at the foot of the mountain, there is no path leading the viewer to “walk” through it, and atop the mountain, there is no orange sky nor light and shadow cast by the statue. In its place is a clean white gallery space under cold fluorescent lights. This discrepancy seems to provoke a sense in the viewer that what lies before their eyes is merely an artificial stone carving and nothing more. Liang Ban does not praise the immortality of the mountain but instead showcases its monumentality; here, the landscape and the nation are stitched together as a single culture and history, which directs the viewing experience to become a part of the national culture of the United States. Liang Ban chooses Mount Rushmore—and not Yellowstone National Park—in order to emphasize how humanity constructs and transforms the natural landscape. With the emergence of the camera, the landscape captured under the gaze of the camera’s lens no longer has a natural quality; it instead blends a historical, cultural, political significance that is artificially imbued within the image. Following this logic, Liang Ban unintentionally softens various concepts and landscapes, and emphasizes a degree of human intervention. With images printed directly on untreated wood, the unevenness of the wood’s color and surface remains in its slightly damaged state, embedding layers of weathered experience into the work.

梁半，《黄昏漫步》，铝合金、木板龙骨、木板上平板喷绘、仿真鹦鹉，394×685×11 cm，2016 / Liang Ban, Evening Rambles, aluminum structure, UV flatbed print on wood board and specimen parrot, 394×685×11cm, 2016

In front of the mountains, several rocks of the same color are placed. They all contain a groove, which is used to mount a video piece on an iPhone. The stones here were carefully chosen by Liang Ban, who explains that the grooves were not chiseled but existed originally in the contours of the stones. Whether in the stones or the video pieces, Liang Ban practices various ways to intervene in nature. In “Friends Circle Rapids,” Liang Ban points his cellphone at a flowing river, while in “Sunrise—Sunset”, the cellphone video of a sunrise and an actual video of a sunset are played simultaneously, which produces the effect of a sun that never sets. And in the three-channel video installation “Stars”, Liang Ban brings together all flags from around the world that contain the symbol of a star; as the screen gradually fades out, the stars gradually emerge, and finally form an entire night sky full of stars.

In addition to photography and video works, the exhibition also presents Liang Ban’s graffiti works. Bearing an image is a 3D map—though all of the map’s information has been erased with white paint, leaving behind only the symbol of the mountains in jagged relief. Liang Ban very “casually” employs black-light spray paint to scrawl a series of unrecognizable, meaningless patterns. When the lights turn off, the protruding mountains appear and create a unique texture, a terrain that erases the concept of national territory. In this context, Liang borrows the title “Magicians of the Earth” for this series of works from the landmark 1989 exhibition at Centre Pompidou, and seems to assert a notion about the sense of deterritoriality and lack of regional distinction across contemporary art.

Apart from a complex concept created by the human imagination in relation to landscapes, appreciating Liang Ban’s works does not foster a sense of repression and perplexity that often comes with viewing contemporary art. Works shot with phones do not reveal a technically difficult approach and relate intimately to viewers’ habits, thereby engendering an odd sense of familiarity.