Tian Xiaolei: Twenty-eight Fables

In Homer, Sisyphus offends the gods. As punishment, he needs to push a huge boulder from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, but because the boulder is too heavy, it often rolls back to the starting point before reaching the top of the mountain. The repeated and endless invalid word became the most severe punishment for him by the gods.

Nowadays, when people and technology are closely integrated, the giant stone of Sisyphus has evolved into the scientific and technological civilization we are carrying. In the process of continuous advancement, technology seems to dissipate time, the future is a mountain top that can be seen but can never be reached. 

The new solo exhibition "Twenty-Eight Fables" of Tian Xiaolei, will focus on the relationship between human being and technology, the artist stands on the dividing line between the present and the future, leading contemporary people to escape from the accustomed environment through artistic creation, and leave twenty-eight contemporary fables for future generations. 

In a sense, we are already in a " post-human " state. Through today's technological means, the combination of man and machine does not exist only in imagination. The artist surrealists the transformation from the character to the human-machine, fragments the information with the characteristics of the times, and remixes it into thought-provoking looped videos that cannot be fully interpreted.

The sense of contradiction that erupts after the fusion of reality and virtuality has not only stayed at the skin level. More importantly, it is the struggle between people and the outside world, even the split and struggle under the skin and deep inside. As with algorithmic programming, one code change can have a huge impact on the outcome. The combination of humans and technology has blurred the definition of identity from the outside to the inside. The tiny implantation of technology into the body and mind may cause an unimaginable butterfly effect.

For example, in the work "The Retribution of the Goddess", Venus stands in the center of the frame, symbolizing the mainstream traditional culture and humanism; while the countless mechanical arms tied to her represent the advancing technology and post-humanism. Tian Xiaolei does not intend to give a clear answer to the future. Instead, as observers and participants, he presents the complex relationship between people and technology, also the sense of panic caused by technological expansion. The looping video works just like the fables that dissipate time and space, the imagination is maximized, trying to let the viewer peep at the unimaginable future.

Tian Xiaolei uses an exaggerated arrangement of visual elements and logical composition to write the artist's deconstruction and fantasy of human and technology; the picture with rich details and hidden classical aesthetics tells the romance and loss of the changing times. He condensed the era of rapid development into an fable of the future. The twenty-eight video works and four sculpture works on display are like twenty-eight chapters of a story. directly point to the changes and alienation of people and society due to technology under the seemingly strange narrative.