I finally had a chance to visit the flow with matter exhibition at the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum over the National Holiday. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the deep level of creativity involved as well as the simple execution of every piece of artwork.
One artwork that I thoroughly enjoyed was the circular track with the giant large marble rolling around in circles. At first I questioned how it was retaining its inertia even though there was no possibility of it going down a slope, and it was continuously circling around the track. And then I noticed the track was expanding and shrinking to allow the ball to rise and lower to both regain potential energy and then exchange it into kinetic energy in a continuous cycle. The reason I fell in love with this work is because it really made me think about cyclical processes as well as the ability to create mind-triggering artworks with the laws of physics. I think the simplicity really assisted in its execution as all the main components could be observed as an essential element of the artwork, never distracting the user with unnecessary adornments.
This artwork reminded me a lot of Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden.
The reason I want to compare these two works is because they use a very similar readymade medium, the large metal ball, however use this object in an entirely different spectrum. I think after experiencing the presentation of everyone’s readymade project, I have a big interest in how a singular object can be presented in so many different ways and these two artworks which have completely different meanings, actually utilize very similar mediums. Kusama’s work, which represents a protest against ego and vanity shows a vast contrast to “Flow With Matter”, which represents the flux of forces in our world and their interconnectedness across time.
Another artwork I fully enjoyed was the Music Box. It definitely left the most long lasting emotional affect than the rest of the exhibition due to the many different feelings I had during my experience. Once entering the room, I wasn’t even sure if it was an actual exhibition or if I had stumbled into a random room, however I decided to put my phone flashlight on and a bunch of creepy noises started to appear. Then, I found a sound box in the middle of the room and discovered that there was a light sensor inside of it, and the loudest, most frightening noises could be made by holding my phone flashlight closest to the box. This room had a very haunted house feeling and I had fun with the light sensor interaction, playing with the sound production and allowing my own atmosphere to be created.
Going back to the exhibit as a whole, I believe it was a nice exploration of physics, matter, simplicity and even a bit of escapism. Connecting different movements from nature and installing them in a digestible medium that allows for internal complentation of the subject.
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