Newman Huo

A TOTAL of 12 installations by two young Chinese new media artists Qiu Zhijie and Jin Jiangbo on display at two separate exhibitions in Shenzhen gave the city’s art lovers an opportunity to experience the artform during the weeklong National Day holiday.

Jointly titled “Sharing Memory: New Media Art by Qiu Zhijie and Jin Jiangbo,” the exhibitions were organized by Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, the Central Book City in Futian District and the Osage Art Foundation in Hong Kong.

One exhibition, featuring eight of the installations, was held at the Central Book City. The other four installations are on display at Shenzhen Fine Art Institute.

The exhibition at the Central Book City closed Oct. 8, while the exhibition at the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute will run through Oct. 28.

“This new media art exhibition is revolutionary because it has overthrown the conventional art exhibition by inviting audiences to take part in artists’ creative activities and fulfill the meaning of those artworks on display,” said Dong Xiaoming, president of the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute.

On Sept. 27, the two artists, their academic advisors Liang Chao and Gao Shimin and art critics from the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts in Zhejiang Province, spoke at a seminar at the Central Book City on new media art.

“Simply speaking, the new media art is made by taking advantage of high technologies in various fields such as acoustics, optics, electricity, electronics, computer, multimedia and even the Internet,” said the Beijing-based Qiu.

“Every era has its own new art. Just as printing, photography, and TV were once the new art of its day, the new media art today is the art representative of our time of the Internet,” he said.

“Although the technologies we’ve used today are different from conventional arts, the feelings, human concerns or contents we’ve expressed in the in the new media art is the same with those conventional arts,” he added.

Among the eight installations at the Book City, the Shanghai-based Jin’s work, “The Third Eye,” was made up two ancient Chinese-style wells, which were equipped with screens, video cameras and wide-band cables and placed in two different places.

Visitors to one well could engage in a dialogue through the hidden video system with people at another well.

“In the eye of Chinese people, well used to be a very familiar symbol, but with the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, wells are gradually disappearing from their daily life,” Jin said.

“Through my work, I hope to remind my audiences of the importance of heart-to-heart communication in today’s world, which is becoming a global village,” he added.

Another Jin installation titled “Outcry” was terrifying at first sight.

When visitors stepped on a screen placed on the floor, loud cries by a crazy man were heard. The man was visible on the screen, as if trying to break through it.

“Through this work, I’m trying to express the predicament people have been put in today as well as their attempt to get rid of the predicament,” Jin said.

One of Qiu works at the Central Book City was an installation titled “Republic of International Airports.”

The work was made up of a series of panoramic pictures Qiu took at airports around the world. Clicking on a mouse connected to a screen, visitors could choose the pictures they wanted to take a closer look at.

“Examining panoramic pictures on the screen is just similar to appreciating a traditional scroll of Chinese landscape panting,” Qiu said.

“The international airports throughout the world, in fact, have created a new concept of space and time for the humankind,” he added. “Through the panoramic pictures, I want to provide my audiences with an opportunity to experience the new concept of space and time.”

Wang Xiaoying, a sophomore at the College of Arts and Design at Shenzhen University, visited the exhibition Oct. 7 after hearing about it from her classmates.

“This new media art is very interesting and exciting and it has dramatically challenged my perception of art, making me to ponder what art really is in our time and what art means to the general public today,” Wang said.

The exhibition at the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, includes two installations by each artist.

Jin’s installation, “Chinese Dinosaur,” is a piece of machinery in shape of a dragon, measuring 5.5 meters long, 2.3 meters tall and about one meter wide.

Equipped with three engines and a loudspeaker, the dragon can open its mouth, wag its tail and send off cries that can be heard 500 meters away.

Jin’s other installation, “Mao Zedong,” combines a 1.5-meter-tall and 1.6-meter-wide portrait of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong with recordings of Mao’s proclamation of the founding of the new China in Beijing on Oct. 1, 1949.

Qiu’s installation, “Photographic Theatres — Group Photos,” is a collage of photos created by putting the images of different people from different times into the same scene.

Qiu’s other installation, “The Series of Individual and Collective Handwritings,” is composed of a series of writings of revolutionary and political slogans in Chinese history, well-known sayings by famous persons, words from popular songs, private letters and even errors in computer programming.