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蔡万霖:空灵与慰藉
Artist: Cai Wanlin
Curator: 晏燕
Time: 2022.12.17 - 2023.03.03
Address: 北京市朝阳区百子湾路32号苹果社区4号楼
IntroductionArtwork
Preface

The characters of Cai Wanlin look out of ethereal eyes, with neither a mouth nor ears. They are at times dorky, melancholic, concerned, and relieved, exhibiting a homogeneous silence, and ponder in solitude and wandering. They are a representation of the artist's condition of being, of individuals in the dilemma of our times who question the essence and direction of life." There is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself", says Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Time and again, we return to reality to know the world and its essence through behavioral processes.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, it has transformed our understanding of globalization and the world on a profound scale. It was in such context that Cai's yy series was created and evolved. Henri Bergson speaks of intuition as the direction for life. Cai is an artist working with intuition. As the perspectives from which he observes increases, Cai combines his life, insight and experiences together. In a stratum of temporalities, he establishes an understanding of life and the essence of the world. Through roaming and loitering, the artist employs this serene, ethereal character and his stories to express. By careful curation, the exhibition excavates the relations between the context of the works and the subjects depicted, employing some of the most representative of the artist's works to inform the narrative. The show consists of the opening Compass, the stories Zhai (Stay Home), Where You Go, My Sad Cloud Knows, Don't Leave Me, You Won and I Didn't Lose, and the epilogue Formless. As the narrative unfolds, the character redirects his mind from frustration to the faraway, struggling to find the way out. Attaining consolation in the company of himself and the other, he eventually achieves reconciliation with the outside world. In silence, the works of Cai Wanlin take the stance of a bystander to the problems of our times, expressing ceaselessly the artist's contemplation and action toward the dilemma. This seemingly silent subject, excited at heart, longs to speak yet remains quiet. With individuals living under same conditions, he raises empathy and brings consolation to one another.

Curator: Yan Yan Deputy Director of Today Art Museum

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