PARADOXITY
A pop-up exhibition
2019.10 Teamwork
Soho, New York
The exhibit was curated by a team of 13 students from the Top 4 NYC’s Design Schools (Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Art and Fashion Institute of Technology) including Jianhao Andy An, Zhihong Fu, Haopeng Lin, Ziwei Liu, Jingyi Wang, Jinghan Hu, Anran Mina Li, Ellen Ren, Liuqing Yang, Chuqiao Lily Liu, Alex Chen, Thyan Zou and Ruihan Xia.
I helped to develop the concept and the visual element for the Nowhere station and onsite installation.
With obliviousness, we dwell. And this exhibition aims to change this.
In Paradoxity, we want to bring urgent concerns to the public eye in the form of an interactive art exhibition. Using New York City as a prototype, we take a few representative elements from it and transform them into a caricature that mocks the problems and paradoxes in the city. Our key themes are mapped around concepts such as anxiousness, human pollution, work pressure, and the loss of privacy.
Throughout the exhibition, we present our reflections upon both the ever-busy city life and the humanities through a variety of visual devices. While encouraging the viewers to take advantage of the art pieces and take many pictures, we also prompt them to explore these issues further; hopefully, they will arrive at a new understanding of the city they are living in. As a whole, this exhibition is not only a stopping point in people’s lives but also the gateway to a life full of mindfulness and keen observation.
For more information please visit:
Official website: https://www.paradoxity-nyc.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paradoxitynyc/
Press: https://www.bigtimedaily.com/nyc-pop-up-exhibit-making-efforts-for-urban-issues/
Nowhere Station
Using elements from our daily life, Nowhere Station is reflective of the reality experienced by us, the denizens of the metropolis. At once, the audience is confronted with the dual meaning of “nowhere”; it can be interpreted both as “no-where” and “now-here”. This intended ambiguity introduces uncertainty, which may be the source for feeling lost. Here, to be lost is not to be disoriented, but to feel the despair of getting nowhere and experience the anxiety that stems from the mechanized day-to-day life. As a whole, Nowhere Station presents a familiar subway scene in a vacuumed space, and uses the scene as a point of departure for the exhibition.
Green Pollution
It is an undebatable fact that the city, or rather the whole earth, is being polluted. While being conscious of this fact, Green Pollution confronts the audience with its surreal imagination—what if the plants are the sources of pollution instead of its victims? While watching the plants’ attempt to take over the city, the audience cannot help but feel remorse for them, for this scene mocks the reality that it is the other way around—it is the plants that are disappearing.
Addictive Office
You are lucky if you love your job. But if you cannot run away from your work, might as well enjoy it. Here, the Addictive Office takes the ordinary office scene and transforms it into a place of work-addicts. By using elements that are usually not associated with the traditional workspace such as neon lights and dim lighting, this scene presents the workspace as somewhere you would go for fun. Though, it is worth thinking that, is being a workaholic and having no passion for your work two subspecies of the same morbidness?
Transparent Bathroom
Being transparent is a good thing, except when it comes to your privacy. Nowadays, people are being watched in different ways with or without noticing. Although bathrooms are supposed to be a safe and private space, in Paradoxity we challenge this idea. Transparent Bathroom explores the actions of seeing and being watched, by presenting the bathroom to the public eyes. It questions the boundary between your privacy and the public domain.
