Counterpoints
Project description
Counterpoints was a two-person exhibition featuring the work of contemporary Chinese artists Lu Chunsheng (b. 1968, Changchun, Jilin Province) and Jia Aili (b. 1979, Dandong, Liaoning Province), presented at the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London. The exhibition brought together two distinct artistic practices examining the social, psychological and cultural consequences of rapid transformation in contemporary China.
At the centre of the exhibition was Lu Chunsheng’s single-channel video The first man who bought a juicer bought it not for drinking juice, a surreal and enigmatic work situated between documentary realism and allegorical fantasy. Its cryptic title introduces a sense of disconnection between intention and action, reflecting the contradictions and absurdities of modern life shaped by consumerism, industrialisation and technological change.
The video presents a dystopian landscape inhabited by hybrid human-machine figures engaged in repetitive and ritualised actions. Their slow, mechanical movements create a hypnotic cycle that evokes alienation, loss of agency and the reduction of individual experience within larger systems of production and consumption. Through this surreal visual language, Lu reflects on the psychological effects of China’s rapid industrial development and the changing relationship between the human body and technology.
Lu’s background in sculpture informs his attention to material, spatial and bodily relationships. Moving between sculpture, installation and experimental film, his practice frequently combines fragmented imagery, sound and unconventional narratives to create environments that are both immersive and unsettling. The hybrid figures in his films suggest fractured identities emerging within a society negotiating the tensions between tradition and hyper-modernity, control and chaos, and human experience and technological systems.
Through its combination of surreal imagery, repetition and fragmented narrative, The first man who bought a juicer bought it not for drinking juice considers the effects of technological and economic transformation on individual experience. The work transforms the language of science fiction and dystopian cinema into a meditation on the structures that shape contemporary life.
Through moving image and experimental storytelling, Counterpoints examines the tensions produced by rapid social and technological transformation. Bringing together the practices of Lu Chunsheng and Jia Aili, the exhibition considers how industrialisation reshapes not only physical environments and systems of production, but also memory, identity and the psychological experience of individuals living within societies undergoing profound change.
Bio
Lu Chunsheng (b. 1968, Changchun, Jilin Province) is a Chinese contemporary artist whose interdisciplinary practice explores mechanisation, the body, technology and social transformation. Trained in sculpture, he works across sculpture, installation and experimental film, creating surreal and often unsettling environments that examine the relationship between individual experience and the systems shaping contemporary life.
Lu’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 27th São Paulo Biennial, China Power Station: Part I at Battersea Power Station in London, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. His work has also been presented at De Appel Foundation in Amsterdam, the Lianzhou International Foto Festival and the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
Jia Aili (b. 1979, Dandong, Liaoning Province) is a Chinese contemporary artist whose practice explores memory, history, conflict and the psychological effects of social transformation. Working primarily through painting, Jia combines dramatic imagery with surreal and fragmented compositions to examine the relationship between individual experience and the rapidly changing realities of contemporary China.
Project details
Year: 2010
Artist Lu Chunsheng
Exhibition: Counterpoints
Venue: Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva), London
Developed in partnership with: David Thorpe; Iniva London
Film commissioned by: Artpace, San Antonio, Texas
Support: ShangHART Gallery; Arts Council England
Catalogue essays: David Thorp; Keith Whittle
Produced during a Residency at: Artpace, San Antonio, Texas
Touring: CIRCA Contemporary Art Projects
International moving image programme: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Country: United Kingdom