A Whole Other World

The Comfortable Exhibition was perhaps the best and the oddest experience yet. We started off going into a small alleyway, up a set of steep stairs in to what seemed like a typical local Chinese home. We passed by the kitchen, in which food had recently been cooked. As I took my shoes off and walked into the place, I stood around waiting for the man to show us his artwork in that typical neat manner on the walls. Instead, we were released to just look around his place. Being completely befuddled at what was going on, I stumbled into a room in which the entire floor was layered with sponge, in which a layer of blue tiles was loosely glued on top. This was when I finally realized that his home itself was an art exhibition. I was awe-stricken by such a creative idea. And most of all, I felt like I was more open-minded to interpretation because I was thrown into it without expectations.

My favorite part of the Comfortable Exhibition was the drawers. One of them had steam flowing out of a mysteriously red inside that could barely be seen. The other drawer had once again contained a mysterious red structure inside as well that was revealed as well. The latter had humid drops collecting inside the mysterious, red identity inside. I loved these parts because it reminded me of how in life, answers won’t just be laid out for you. There are some things that you will never know, and some things that just don’t have a solution, an answer. But that is the beauty of it, just like these pieces of art emitted a mysterious aura of beauty.

The second place, SH Contemporary Art Fair, was just as delightful and insightful. My favorite pieces were the ones that represented the looming future problems of today’s world, given that I have a strong interest in eco-friendly practices. As we entered, we came across this clear contained filled with water that you can pump. In it were tiny imitations of plastic Coke bottles, trash, and to-go-boxes clustering around the decaying boat under the sea and on the surface. This was such a realistic representation of today’s polluted world and its forthcoming environmental detrimental effects. Its purpose seemed to be to emit a sense of urgency and responsibility in the world’s citizens. Lin Hairong painted the other artwork that captured a similar societal/environmental concern. It was an oil on canvas work called, April: Sand Storm Coming, Quick, Plant Trees! The gray background seemed to represent the suffocating smoggy air and the girl’s dire expression seemed to show the gravity of the environmental situation.