Gao Wei Gang’s
Fall vacation
(166’s November exhibition)
leaves his
reliably wiggy
fab wizardry
fully in view.
Away ambulating
in Up-Up and …?
Gao’s destinations
(travelers be warned)
tend to terrify and
1st Dimension’s
no exception.
Chauffeur and
co-conspirator both,
Gao rarely ventures
far from the studio
straying afield
typically only
in auspices of work -
sending us places
we’ve never been
casually to where
we cannot exist.
Embarking next
from ArtSpace
he flirts with
Duchamp’s
then Johns’s
reboot of modernism.
“Transition”s partially
the project’s objective
(ref Matta on Marcel)
less Cubist capture
of objects in space
less Futurist’s record
of objects in motion
instead as
Johns put it
“precisely …
the slipping away
of that moment”
“Up” forms
range from
kitsch to elusive,
bend memory on
heavy machinery,
thinly veiled skill,
artistry, empathy and
dystopian humor,
skirt
calloused opinions
and retinal burns
preferring to
pave over cracks in our
lanes of vision.
First dimension works render austere images
of familiar subjects
soothing and seductive
in pursuit of
drawing us closer
Gao imagines
(circa century’s
second decade)
travel to Saturn
provisioned in
bunk beds,
baguettes,
bottled water and
a clock face
with only a
second hand.
His smirking empathy
tempers in short term
our temporal terror
at facing a voyage
on an ark of detritus.
He later debuts
an Apple computer
(Carrera marble monitor
and gospel soundtrack)
in museum alcove
converting it to
a chapel.
“Up”’s computer
(tiny now)
atop a folding table,
beside a mini lamp,
conjures newsroom kit -
vintage Wayne era
Superman cover.
That time when
objective copy
was an objective,
truth curried favor
and faith remained firm in
stories’ credulity as
records not spin.
Gao’s two dice
carved out of meteor
premiered years earlier
in Paris.
He now gambles wisely
on new multiples
cloned from silicon
engineered as
civic towers
and plazas
delivering intimacy
equal to first rare
French asteroid pair.
Ladders in “Up”
nod to Gao’s
prior ascents -
as ever not as
Möbius as Escher’s.
Tall, tapered,
masterfully painted,
are now just as
flat as his Saturns.
These climbs’ hide beta
beneath runny mascara
blurring the lines of
upward progress -
misdirecting ably as
a one hand clock’s
hopeless live streaming.
Wrap up?
Apologies!
Up-Up ‘s
1st dimension only.
Further pend
in venues beyond
coaxing voyages
seducing us to
stay tuned,
pay attention
and then …?
Gao Wei Gang’s
Fall vacation
(166’s November exhibition)
leaves his
reliably wiggy
fab wizardry
fully in view.
Away ambulating
in Up-Up and …?
Gao’s destinations
(travelers be warned)
tend to terrify and
1st Dimension’s
no exception.
Chauffeur and
co-conspirator both,
Gao rarely ventures
far from the studio
straying afield
typically only
in auspices of work -
sending us places
we’ve never been
casually to where
we cannot exist.
Embarking next
from ArtSpace
he flirts with
Duchamp’s
then Johns’s
reboot of modernism.
“Transition”s partially
the project’s objective
(ref Matta on Marcel)
less Cubist capture
of objects in space
less Futurist’s record
of objects in motion
instead as
Johns put it
“precisely …
the slipping away
of that moment”
“Up” forms
range from
kitsch to elusive,
bend memory on
heavy machinery,
thinly veiled skill,
artistry, empathy and
dystopian humor,
skirt
calloused opinions
and retinal burns
preferring to
pave over cracks in our
lanes of vision.
First dimension works render austere images
of familiar subjects
soothing and seductive
in pursuit of
drawing us closer
Gao imagines
(circa century’s
second decade)
travel to Saturn
provisioned in
bunk beds,
baguettes,
bottled water and
a clock face
with only a
second hand.
His smirking empathy
tempers in short term
our temporal terror
at facing a voyage
on an ark of detritus.
He later debuts
an Apple computer
(Carrera marble monitor
and gospel soundtrack)
in museum alcove
converting it to
a chapel.
“Up”’s computer
(tiny now)
atop a folding table,
beside a mini lamp,
conjures newsroom kit -
vintage Wayne era
Superman cover.
That time when
objective copy
was an objective,
truth curried favor
and faith remained firm in
stories’ credulity as
records not spin.
Gao’s two dice
carved out of meteor
premiered years earlier
in Paris.
He now gambles wisely
on new multiples
cloned from silicon
engineered as
civic towers
and plazas
delivering intimacy
equal to first rare
French asteroid pair.
Ladders in “Up”
nod to Gao’s
prior ascents -
as ever not as
Möbius as Escher’s.
Tall, tapered,
masterfully painted,
are now just as
flat as his Saturns.
These climbs’ hide beta
beneath runny mascara
blurring the lines of
upward progress -
misdirecting ably as
a one hand clock’s
hopeless live streaming.
Wrap up?
Apologies!
Up-Up ‘s
1st dimension only.
Further pend
in venues beyond
coaxing voyages
seducing us to
stay tuned,
pay attention
and then …?