PRESENTATION: Hu Xiangcheng-Asking Every Day

Hu Xiangcheng graduated from the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1977 and became the youngest professor in the art department.  Inspired by his studies and life experiences in Japan and Africa, HU Xiangcheng returned to China in 2002 to begin his work to improve the lives of rural residents. Through hands-on renovation of ancient Chinese villages, HU Xiangcheng aspires to simultaneously revive ancient Chinese culture and traditional practices. In 1996, HU Xiangcheng was one of the founders of the now world-renowned Shanghai Biennale.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Power Station of Art Archive

The exhibition “Asking Every Day”, not only feature a selection of the Hu Xiangcheng’s paintings, videos, sculptures, and archives from the 1970s to the present day but also highlight several large-scale installations realized in adaptation to the Power Station of Art architectural history and spacial characteristics. Through these works, Hu Xiangcheng, with his passion for creation, keeps asking questions and thinking about the present and the future in different ways, considering the museum as an experimental space for “generative exploration”, and as a “field” that connects the public with various disciplines. The exhibition title “Asking Every Day” is inspired by the artist’s quest for the truths of the world. Born in Shanghai in 1950, Hu Xiangcheng has shown strong curiosity in the world since his childhood observation of insects. That curiosity has then become the primary impetus behind Hu’s attempts to understand and experience the world, urging him to seek answers to everything while allowing him to generate infinite imagination. In 1973, Hu was admitted to the Shanghai Theater Academy (STA), where tutors were celebrating varying painting styles and never confined themselves to creative mediums like sound, light, and electricity. The teaching approach, being both diverse and inclusive, fostered Hu’s eclectic creative practice that strives to uncover the mystery of art, and has been passed on in his teaching methodology for more than a decade. After graduation, Hu Xiangcheng became a tutor at STA and was later assigned to teach in Tibet. Upholding a philosophy of “helping students discover their native abilities”, Hu Xiangcheng, who was only a few years older than his students, has developped together with the students in the exchange of ideas. In 1986, Hu went to Japan for further study, majoring in plasticism, folk craft art and contemporary art, before living in Africa, Europe, America and other parts of the world for research and creative practice. As Hu Xiangcheng noted, “To understand a box, we need to observe it from the inside out to gain a clearer picture.” His deep engagement with different cultures has prompted him to create art that transcends the boundaries of culture, region, material, and form. Hu Xiangcheng’s extensive experience and social practice in factories and rural areas have given him a long-lasting impulse to experiment with multiple forms of expression. Instead of confining himself to a singular form of expression, Hu Xiangcheng constantly seeks breakthroughs. His works in various forms evolve and flourish like living creatures, responding to the times and adapting to changes. They are often difficult to categorise, and it is also hard to define the moment when the artist ventured into different media. However, the painting marks the starting point and the most enduring approach of this curious and prolific artist. Over the years, his interdisciplinary activities and various creations beyond painting have not only broadened his horizons and opened his mind, but also contributed to his deeper understanding of painting. When he returns to the tranquil studio from the social practices of constant change, the artist employs his most skilful painting to express his mixed feelings and complicated thoughts that are beyond words. As a result, works that combine two-dimensional surfaces with three-dimensional structures, integrating existing materials and hand-painted traces in response to different situations, gradually come into being from the artist’s hands and brushes. Given the complexity of the world and the changing nature of human emotions, Hu Xiangcheng’s creations are not limited to any particular form but rather employ installations, sculptures, videos, and performances to create unique and diversified works following the needs of the contents. This time at PSA, the eponymous sound installation Asking Everyday takes the lead in striking the theme. The hand-cranked mechanical device juxtaposes 365 objects of production and life, which are made with natural materials from ancient and modern times as well as from home and abroad. Its mechanical rotation causes the objects to give off sounds of percussion and vocal improvisation that are both familiar and strange, pointing to the reality that mankind is questioning everything every day. Another large-scale installation “100,000 10-Year Plans” “showcases an imagination of one million years, revealing the artist’s detachment from reality, future, and destiny. In addition, the exhibition will also include several immersive installations crafted by the artist drawing on the history of PSA’s architecture as a power plant. For example, in Spiral Pattern”, the artist sets up at the exhibition hall a scrapped coal conveyor belt, on which people and animals shuttle between spiral-shaped structures that symbolize cosmic energy. By shedding light on the Shanghai-born artist who has travelled around the world and dived into folk cultures, the exhibition seeks to provide a deeper reflection on Chinese contemporary art and to open up more possibilities for further dialogue. Hu Xiangcheng’s artistic journey began with random scribblings on his father’s discarded paper ledgers, followed by acts of copying the “Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden”. After graduating from primary school, he went to Shanghai’s Yuanfeng Woolen Mill as a work-study practitioner, where he worked as a wood-molding operator, sand-casting operator, and cook after only three days of classroom study. In 1970, Hu Xiangcheng studied sketching with Meng Guang. Following graduation from Shanghai Theater Academy in 1976, he taught successively at the academy and Tibet University, before going to Japan to study Japanese at a commercial Japanese language school in 1986 and graduating from Musashino Art University in 1991. In the same year, he started to visit cities and villages in Africa, Europe, and the United States to conduct research and experiments on folk craft and contemporary art. In 1996, he participated in the establishment of the Shanghai Biennale, serving as a member of the biennale’s academic committee for several terms. In 2000, he initiated a decade-long practice of rural construction around Shanghai, before serving as the art director of the United Africa Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Photo: Hu Xiangcheng, The Vitruvian Men Trying to Climb out of the Garbage, 2018, mixed media, dimensions variable. Image Courtesy of the artist

Info: Curator: Fumio Nanjo, Power Station of Art (PSA), 678 Miaojiang Road, Shanghai, China, Duration: 14/4-9/6/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-19:00, www.powerstationofart.com/