Past Exhibition

What Goes Around Goes Around — New Works by Yi Kai

02 Nov - 02 Dec  |  2015
Yi Kai Catalogue
Introduction
Gallery talk:
Interior and Exterior Landscape in a Global World
by artist and David Pagel, Art Critic for the LA Times and Lifetime Professor at Claremont Graduate University, California
Starts 4:30pm


Alisan Fine Arts is pleased to present What Goes Around Goes Around, a solo exhibition of new works by the Chinese-American artist Yi Kai (b. 1955). A play on the words “what goes around comes around” this exhibition examines the venerated karmic cycle, suggesting a lack of culpability in today’s society, and that perhaps life’s accounts will never be quite so balanced. Yi Kai suggests that our envisioning of a society established around the philosophy that ‘you reap what you sow’ is perhaps imprecise. On the contrary this exhibition acknowledges that art is created not because of a return on investment or payment, because there is no guarantee whatsoever that art engenders positive or negative responses. For Yi Kai, this body of work represents a way in which to scrutinize the relationship between individuals and crowds, and especially how these connections are informed by modern telecommunication.
On display are works from his travelling exhibition, which were first displayed at Claremont Graduate University in the United States and then at the 53 Art Museum in Guangzhou. The series Golden Human and Circuit World series perhaps best conveys the artist’s examination of the relationship between individuals and crowds. Both show people floating about constructed and misty landscapes pursing that they need or desire. The top centre of Pray with Circuit World #2 shows a red figure kneeling with its arms stretched out, head raised, capturing the hopeful optimism expressed by the interactions between figures in both series. The ambiguity between figures, the landscape and thoughts are portrayed in the circuit world, highlighting the connection between people and technological networks.


As part of Hong Kong Art Gallery Week
Gallery hours extended until 7pm on Saturday, 7 November
Free shuttle bus from Admiralty and Central to Gallery, running every hour on the hour. Please check www.hk-aga.org for more details.


Catalogue available