Liste Art Fair Basel 2021

Messe Basel, Hall 1.1 Maulbeerstrasse/ corner Riehenring 113 4058 Basel, 20 - 26 September 2021 
Booth 23 – Monday, 20 September, 10am–8pm – Tuesday, 21 September–Saturday, 25 September, 11am–8pm – Sunday, 26 September, 11am–4pm www.liste.ch

A Thousand Plateaus Art Space X GoodWeather Gallery

Zhai Liang 翟倞 X Matt Siegle

 

20 – 26 September 2021

VIP Preview 20 September 2021

 

Booth: 23

Messe Basel, Hall 1.1

Maulbeerstrasse/

corner Riehenring 113

4058 Basel

 

Press

 

A Thousand Plateaus (Chengdu) and Good Weather (North Little Rock / Chicago) are pleased to present a joint presentation of new work by Zhai Liang (China) and Matt Siegle (United States) for Liste Art Fair Basel in 2021. The shared booth has been conceived of as a multiaxial presentation of sculpture (Siegle) and painting (Zhai) that draws from the socially-engaged elements of each artists’ practice.

 

Siegle and Zhai have a synchronistic concern with the indexical and quotidian qualities of reference. Both artists explore these qualities through a conceptual framework that reveals the disjointed and expansive potential of language and knowledge. Zhai’s new series of paintings "Grid 3" is composed through close observation and study of the multi-dimensional meanings of words. He transforms these words into visualized “hypertext” and extends them into a spatial narrative. One level of this method is a wall-bound matrix: a fundamental structure of contemporary words that are addressed and laid out in rows and columns (and classified based on the index of an ancient Chinese encyclopedia from 300 years ago) with each potential axis serving as a directional grid to create, categorize, and display Zhai’s perpetual production of paintings. These experiments dissect and reconstruct conventional linguistic relationships and design a formula that frees the combination of words within Eastern society from an interlocking stability—revealing the time-based notions of order that seem intrinsic to language and instead returning it to its unencumbered ancient roots.

 

Siegle’s work also aims to unpack this compounded foundation. His performances have dealt with rhetoric sourced from “classic” literature and spoken word (speeches, songs, diatribes) that make up the construction of an assumed Western ideology. Through his sculptural practice, he turns this gaze towards geological and personal conjecture (and consumption) and sources materials from his travels and domestic life: wasted plastics (Poland Spring Water, Xanax Rx, Seventh Generation dishwasher soap), bathroom reading materials (local publications for VT green living, queer leather journals brought from LA home), CDs, tetrapacks for soup stock, etc. Digesting and processing these artifacts and ephemera of bodily existence through an individual and subcultural lens, Siegle disfigures and assembles a visual language (like Zhai) which continues to question and disrupt accepted canons of meaning and knowledge within the political landscape.

 

千高原(成都)和Good Weather(北小石城/芝加哥)将在Liste 2021联合展示艺术家翟倞(中国)和马特·西格勒(美国)的新作品。联合展位将以多轴方式展现两位艺术家的绘画、雕塑作品以及其艺术实践中的社会参与元素。

 

 

Siegle和翟倞对索引系统和生活中的日常性具有同步关注。两位艺术家都通过各自独特的逻辑框架探索了这些品质,这些框架揭示了语言不连贯却又无与伦比的潜力。翟倞的新系列绘画通过仔细观察和研究词语的多维含义而构成属于他的一套视觉系统。他将这些词语转换为可视化的“超文本”,并将其扩展为空间叙事。这种方法的一个层面体现在他创作的表格墙上:通过把若干最近艺术家关心的名词(它们背后所具有沉重而迷惑的当代意义)按照一本距今300年的中国文人写的奇怪的百科全书的目录来分类,以绘画卡片的形式,制作出一个图像的表格,卡片在这个奇异的标题目录下会有非常不同的含义。它们从来现代语言所代表的秩序中解脱出来,回到了一个来自东方古代社会的时间之中。这些创作剖析并重建了传统的语言关系,并设计了一个系统,将东方社会中的单词组合从语言固有的,基于时间的秩序概念,和联锁稳定性中解放出来,将其回归到其不受阻碍的古老根源。

 

Siegle的工作也同样旨在解开这个复杂的基础。他的表演涉及源自“古典”文学和口语(演讲,歌曲,谩骂)的修辞,这些修辞构成了一种假定的西方意识形态。通过雕塑实践,他将目光转向了地质和个人猜想(和消费),并从他的家旅行和庭生活中获取材料:废旧塑料(波兰矿泉水瓶,Xanax Rx药瓶,第七代洗碗皂),浴室阅读材料(VT绿色生活的当地出版物,从洛杉矶带来的同志皮革期刊),CD,高汤包装等 。通过个人和亚文化视角消化和处理这些人工制品和如蜉蝣般昙花一现的物质,Siegle变形并构建了一种视觉语言(如同翟倞),它继续质疑和瓦解政治格局中公认的意义标准和充满知识规范。