Liao Fei: Depiction
Location: 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai
Opening: December 18, 17:00-19:00, 2021
Duration: December 19, 2021 – February 28, 2022
The Cloister Project is pleased to present “Depiction”, a solo exhibition of Liao Fei. Through a series of painting, drawings, and installation, the exhibition employs Liao Fei’s signature image-based and deductive reasoning to reflect and challenge the subtle sequences and formulas in cognitive patterns. The exhibition will be on view at the Cloisters Apartment from December 19, 2021, through February 28, 2022.
In “Depiction”, the artist questions the tacit patterns in our daily interactions with the surroundings, and presents installations and graphic works revealing cases and scenarios that contradict common instinct, such as the randomly activated motion sequence of gallery windows and lights controlled by an algorithm, or a series of drawings of clocks that won’t obey the inevitable passing of time. Liao Fei stays alert to anything that obscures us from perceiving the alternatives and the variations in the physical world, and attempts to liberate our mind from the daily routines that we subconsciously follow and regard as the “truth” of life.
Building upon the basic geometric elements, Liao Fei demonstrated his conceptual principle by depicting the singular idea of a circle in three variations of perspective, extracting the common area where the circles overlap as a portal-like shape that disrupts the uniformity of the circles. The images grow into complexity as he applies the principle to more elaborate geometric cryptex puzzles or the graphic outline of written phrases that vaguely recall the rhythm of a haiku. This series even morphs into a site-specific intervention as the artist shines a new light on how one is supposed to hold a coffee cup.
The exhibition unveils novelty and simplicity against chaos, and produces metaphysical imageries fused with a touch of humor. Liao Fei’s works are not manuscripts that preach to subvert the order of things, but to remind us with the infinity possibilities in a world that we are ever so familiar with.
