“By Day and By Night”

Joon Nam

Rockbund Art Museum
"By Day and By Night"
November 18, 2010

A visit to Rockbund Art Museum proved to be quite a nice fieldtrip.
The exhibition currently held there called "By Day and By Night" has
brought numerous artists from in and out of China, displaying
photography works, installations, and videos. Starting from the top
floor, the installation by Nedko Solakov's "I Want back Home (Said the
Frog)" was a very interesting piece. I thought his journey to return
Joji home to China all the way from Bulgaria via train was a very
playful project, yet the journey really brought the in-depth
reflections. The work seems to ask what constitutes reality around us,
and why these realities are different yet the same for all
individuals. Moving down stairs, the next piece that I thought was
interesting was Sun Xun's animation and the installation "Sketche for
Beyond Isms". I felt that he was successful in creating a beautiful
and harmonious work that uses the elements from difference cultures
and times that may seem to clash with each other. Sa
m Samore's film "Hallucination/Paradise", which depicts the stories of
three couples, also reflects how we may be different as each
individual yet share the same emotions and feelings as humans.
Overall, I felt that the exhibition was very coherent in its theme,
and liked many of the works on the display; the works at the
exhibition successfully reflect Shanghai where different people and
cultures are fused together in to a culture of its own.