Gene Gallery is delighted to announce the solo exhibition "Cross Ventilation" by artist Wang Kaifan, curated by Chen Junyao from November 4, 2023 to December 10, 2023.
"Xar mangh" -- the Mongolian word for yellow sandy area, and is a metaphor for the largest urban village in Hohhot. Several streets devoid of modernity outline a stranded wasteland. It has emerged from the deserts and grasslands that nurtured the Mongolian people, but has failed to climb the steel skeleton that incubated modern civilization.
Standing in the middle ground of unacceptance, "Xar mangh" has grown scales of alienation. Throughout the long years, It has always been quietly huddled in the body of Hohhot, not up and not down, not in and not out. Like a forgotten watcher. Watching over the wind that never turns back, until ......
Until in the distant streets of Berlin, the artist Wang Kaifan eyed a gust of wind and sand passing by, a corner of memory was lifted.
The streets of "Xar mangh" are narrow and long. Yellow cob walls and dirt ground are dotted with the lights of red lanterns. The friction between the soles of my shoes and the earth raised dust. I was hit by a brisk wind head-on, across my chest and over my back, leaving nothing behind.
-- Wang Kaifan