Newman Huo

A NEW media art exhibition, combining works by the Beijing-based artist Miao Xiaochuan and a group of Hong Kong-based artists, musicians and dancers, is being staged at the Shenzhen Fine Arts Institute until March 9.

Titled "H2O: A Study of Art History," Miao's works relate to water as a metaphor for life and meaning.

A teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Miao is one of the most innovative and accomplished artists of new media in China today.

His displayed works comprise six reproductions of some classic master paintings in European art history, such as Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" and "The Deluge" from the Sistine Chapel, Titian's "Bacchanal," Lucas Cranach the Elder's "The Fountain of Youth," and Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo's "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian."

Miao's method involves him generating a three-dimensional model of his body on a computer. He uses the model to substitute for all figures depicted in original paintings, irrespective of whether the original figures were male or female, old or young, saints or sinners, adults or children.

Using software to manipulate the model into different positions, Miao integrates these figures into his new paintings based on the original compositions.

Miao's work titled "Martyrdom" uses water as a metaphor for the cycle of life. The work is based on the painting "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian", which was painted by the Italian brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo in 1475 and is now kept in The National Gallery in London.

The original painting depicts the saint looking characteristically unconcerned when he is repeatedly shot by a group of archers. The only water in the painting is a meandering river in the distant background.

In Miao's version, the artist has been rotated in the scene by some 20 or 30 degrees and elevated the perspective by the same degree.

But the most significant variation is the artist's rendering of the saint as a peculiar form of water. In the original painting, the saint is pierced by arrows but does not bleed. But Miao's figure is leaking profusely from a number of punctures. The body's water flows freely in a series of arcs to the ground below.

In his work, Miao tries to evoke the concept of the eternal cycle of life and the regenerative symbolism of water that is found in almost all ancient traditions and major world religions.

The same theme is explored in another of Miao's works "Fountain," which was based on German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder's painting "The Fountain of Youth," dating from 1546.

In the original painting, old women are brought to the legendary spring, some on foot, some in carts, and others by wheelbarrow, to be rejuvenated by the magical waters. They enter the fountain on the left, old, worn and weary, and then leave on the right, restored to youth and vigor, ready to find romance again and partake in all earthly pleasures.

Miao's figures manage to convey both the world's weary and youthful coquettishness, but they do so through postures alone, as all have the same physique and identical blank expressions.

Titled "Siren: New Media Art," the production by the 11 Hong Kong-based artists, musicians and dancers is a kind of re-appropriation of Greek myths of the Sirens.

The Sirens are legendary enchantresses of the underworld and monsters of Grecian sea sagas. They remain one of the most alluring and full-bodied metaphors of the dangers of the sea and the destructive power of desire.

The Hong Kong artists' re-appropriation of the Sirens' fatal allure has brought to life a complex web of contemporary motifs associated with water, death and desire. The works include a collaborative sound and video installation by new media artist Christopher Lau and composer Samson Young, based on W.B.Yeats' epic poem "Byzantium."

John Wong, a designer and director of music videos, has collaborated with multimedia artist Pong Lam to make a transparent cube-like structure suspended in midair that doubles as a sculpture and the canvas for an interactive video projection which uses live-feed footage from all corners of the exhibition site.

The exhibition also includes the repeated playing of a video of a new dance piece choreographed by Nina Habulan-Gelladuga and Koala Yip and performed by them and dancer Thomas Belen. The music was composed by Samson Young and Seth Cluett and performed by a quartet from the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong.

Dates: Through March 9

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Monday

Add: Shenzhen Fine Arts Institute

Yinhu Road, Luohu District

(罗湖区银湖路深圳画苑)

Bus: 4, 5, 7, 201, 218, 222, 301, 315, 360. About five minutes walk from the Yinhu Bus Station.

Caption:

1-1, 1-2, Christopher Lau at the exhibition, which opened in Shenzhen Fine Art Institute on Jan. 31.

2, Samson Young and Christopher Lau's sound and video installation "Gong Tormented-Sea II."

3-1, 3-2, 3-3, Pong Lam and John Wong's sound and video installation "Riverscape/Wavelet."

4. Miao Xiaochuan's work "H2O-The Deluge."

5. Miao Xiaochuan's work "H2O-Washing of the Feet."

6. Miao Xiaochuan's work "H2O-Genesis."

7. Miao Xiaochuan's work "H2O-Martyrdom."