June 5th, 2021 – July 2, 2021, at Reception Gallery in Shanghai, China
H27 is a boutique curatorial outfit currently collaborating with a variety of emerging and established artists – as well as venues in Berlin, Germany and Shanghai, China – in hosting art exhibitions. Visit www.theh27.com and follow us on Instagram @h27gallery to learn more about upcoming events. This time H27 proudly presents Landi’s solo show, Society of the Spectacle, hosted in partnership with Reception Gallery and Space.
The title of Shenzhen-born illustrator Landi’s solo show draws from the Marxist philosopher Guy Debord’s 1967 work, The Society of the Spectacle, which argues that modern society has been evacuated of authenticity. The colonization of social life has been effected through mediated representations, which have supplanted genuine human interaction. In challenging this claim via her illustrations, Landi harnesses the power of spectacular images in order to help individuals recover “a sense of self-consciousness in existence.
Landi’s illustrations derive from the routines of the mundane and the minutiae of the everyday. With her Moleskine and pencils, Landi surveys the landscape of the city in search of a scene: patrons drinking and eating in bars and restaurants in the Former French Concession, strangers taking glamour shots in the streets, office suits working late into the night, or neighbors in her Shanghainese residential complex. Although the exact characters and the specific locations change, she recognizes that the mood of these social interactions can often veer into the artificial. In this context, Landi assumes the role of the ethnographer: an astute observer that trains her gaze at both the individual and the group. Ultimately, she transforms the initial spartan sketches that are her records onto large-scale canvases, replete with bursts of color that seem almost animated. Dwelling in both chaos and order, dialogue and detachment, the figures that comprise Landi’s finished products are simultaneously alone and part of a larger conversation and “community.”
There is a certain irony in critiquing the rituals of human interaction by physically memorializing it. Curiously enough, Debord’s remedy for what he decried as the poverty of modern life was located in situations that do as much; actively constructed moments that bring about a “revolutionary rendering of life […] and art.” In a similar sense,
Landi’s illustrations peel away the layers to uncover the “real,” that obfuscated by
inauthenticity. In doing so, Landi turns the false into a moment of truth.
curated by Ryan Edward Kalb / founder and creative director of H27
社会奇观
H27 邀请到 Landi 联合 Reception Gallery and Space 举办个展“景观社会”.
Landi 这次画展的主题来源于法国马克思主义作家 Guy Debord 于 1967 年 出版的作品“景观社会，辩论了现代资本主义物化社会已经开始失去了真实性。社会生活的殖民化已经通过媒介化来实现取代了人与人之间真实的互动。 Landi 用奇观图像的力量来培养个人“存在的独立意识”。
Landi 的插画灵感来自于日复一日的观察和每天生活里发生的琐事。Landi 带着素描本和铅笔穿越城市寻找场景：在旧法租界的酒吧和餐馆里喝酒和吃饭的顾客，在街上拍摄美丽照片的陌生人，在办公室工作到深夜西装革履的加班族，或者在她的上海历史建筑工作室中的邻居。尽管确切的人物和具体的地点发生了变化，但其内容却是不同程度的相似。Landi 是人群里的观察者，在观察人群的同时也在观察着自己在当代社会里自我存在形态；作为一个细枝末节和情绪的记录者，她将看到一幕幕的剧照转化为大尺幅的、生动的、色彩迸发的画作。
在当代社会机器面前，艺术往往被视为无稽之谈。然而，Debord 对现代生活的贫瘠化的改进方式就会在这样的情况下进行；积极构建能够带来 “对生活[…]和艺术的革命性渲染”的时刻。我们常常会因为当下真实生活中种种不真实的表象而感觉到模糊不清，Landi 用她的插图剥开了一层层的表象，揭露了相对真实的生活。艺术可以连接到所有人的集体无意识，这是一个深刻而真实的 精神对话；Landi 用她的视觉语言将虚假的表象变成了一个当下真实的片刻。
本次展览由 Ryan Edward Kalb ( H27 创始人 / 创意总监) 策展
