2024 CAFA Graduation Season丨Liang Zongyao: Glass is fragile, exactly like the body and spirit of “human beings”

TEXT:CAFA ART INFO    DATE: 2024.5.16

On May 1, 2024 CAFA Graduation Season was officially unveiled at CAFA Art Museum. Just as the theme “Direction of the Heart” contains good wishes and sincere expectations for Class of 2024 at CAFA, 2024 CAFA Graduation Season does not only contain their art achievements,  their enthusiasm and perseverance in creation are also reflected, which further conveys the imagination and expectations of young students as they embark on the road to the future.

01 Exhibition View of Theorized Pains Series.pngTheorized Pains Series, glass, iron powder, mist, dimensions variable, 202420 Portrait of Liang Zongyao.pngPortrait of Liang Zongyao

Theorized Pains

By Liang Zongyao, Department of Sculpture at CAFA

I have always been interested in topics such as time, body, and life. With the flow of time, human lives experience ups and downs. Inspired by my comprehension of time and life, I have sought materials with temporal nature and life-related properties in my creation. The iron powder that oxidizes, the water mist that dissipates, and the coldness, fragility, transparency, and sparkle characteristics of glass all attract me.

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03 Exhibition View of Theorized Pains Series.pngTheorized Pains Series, glass, iron powder, mist, dimensions variable, 2024

Just like the name of my work, “Theorized Pains” has two meanings: one is for the artistic expression of the work itself. I use glass, rust and other media to present the pathological status quo in a concrete way. At the same time, the appearance of my work is not bloody and fleshy like a laboratory, but it is abstracted by artistic expression; secondly, it is based on my personal comprehension of time. “Theory” is life, which cannot be reversed or escaped.

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07 Exhibition View of Theorized Pains Series.pngTheorized Pains Series, glass, iron powder, mist, dimensions variable, 2024

Glass is fragile, just like the physical and mental fragility of “human beings.” The images presented in my work are not a representation of pains, but my experiment to find a breakthrough to reconcile with time, life and death.

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10 Exhibition View of Theorized Pains Series.pngTheorized Pains Series, glass, iron powder, mist, dimensions variable, 2024

In this work, I have used an infusion system made from a condenser; an electrocardiogram simulated by the principle of glow discharge; cell slices presented with hot-melt glass and glass engraving; and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine presented by printmaking techniques to fix iron powder on glass plates. With the combination of these multiple media, my purpose is to achieve a concrete presentation of a pathology laboratory or surgery scene, so that the audience can enter the art scene more intuitively and thus have a different understanding of time and life.

Courtesy of Liang Zongyao, edited by CAFA ART INFO