Liang Shaoji: The Sea is Deep

Liang Shaoji / Artist A pioneer in “life weaving” art using live insects One of China’s most important contemporary artists Recipient of the Dutch “Prince Claus Award” An extraordinary and “global” artist

The Sea World Culture and Arts Center's grand opening exhibition for 2024 will present a major solo exhibition, "Hai Ming Ming," by Liang Shaoji, one of China's most important contemporary artists. The twelve exhibited works encompass installations and videos, six of which are newly created to integrate with the city's geocultural characteristics. At the same time, this exhibition will specially set up a public exhibition area and an exhibition documentation area.

As the artist's first solo exhibition in South China and the Greater Bay Area, "Hai Ming Ming" showcases his extraordinary artistic experimental spirit and profound exploration of life, nature, and time through a series of the artist's representative site-specific installations, precious documentary materials, and new creations combined with Shenzhen's urban historical features. In this exhibition, Liang Shaoji will also make his first attempt at applying artificial intelligence and machine learning, presenting a collision of philosophy and science, history and the present.

The exhibition is titled "Hai Ming Ming." The two characters "Ming Ming" first describe the silkworm's living environment, an atmosphere of light rain and tranquil twilight; at the same time, they also depict the mystery, profundity, and vastness of the "sea." The twelve exhibited works cover various forms such as installations, videos, and manuscripts. Through the silkworm, a tiny yet vibrant medium, the exhibition explores the vast and rich geographical and cultural landscape of the ocean, and evokes the collective memory and regional cultural identity of local audiences.

Among the twelve works, six are brand new pieces "tailor-made" by the artist for this Shenzhen exhibition. They represent his exploration of the integration of silkworms and marine culture, following his previous works on silkworms and nature, and silkworms and industry. These include two video works, "History of Pain" and "Time," and installations such as "Sinking Horizon," "Dim Light," "Vast Universe," and "Fourfold Waves," all of which reveal the relationship between social development and reform and opening up, spirit and nature, culture and belief.

The 28-meter-long, monumental four-screen video installation "Sinking Horizon" is one of the most striking works in this exhibition. The heavy iron chains that appeared in "Chain: The Unbearable Lightness of Being" are now suspended horizontally in the exhibition hall, confronting the vast and boundless horizon in the projection. The silk, symbolizing the lifeline, transforms here into a sea light, extending infinitely in both directions, and the artist invites the audience to jointly experience the resilience and fragility of human life in a turbulent environment.