Featuring the works of Wang Hailei, Sarah Nind and Vincent Goetz

Oct.17 – Nov.15, 2009
opening
Saturday, 17 October 
3 - 6pm

Wang Hailei: Yi Jing Remix – The Book of (Digital) Changes

Wang Hailei, a 31 year-old Beijing resident, originally from Qingdao, describes himself as an artist, a designer and a computer programmer. It's been nine years since he first coded computer programs after being certified by Microsoft as a Systems Engineer. He is now a full time generative artist and interactive designer. 

Generative Art refers to any artistic practice where the artist uses a system, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, or some other processing tool, which, when set into motion with some degree of autonomy, results in (or contributes to) a completed work of art. Hailei has found Generative Art to be the natural expression for his combined passions and talents in both art and technology. 

Hailei’s generative art is a vehicle to express his understanding and feelings about ancient Chinese aesthetics and philosophy, inspired especially by the Zhouyi 周易, what we generally refer to as the Yi Jing (易经) or, in English, as the Book of Changes.  The Zhouyi contains an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy that is intrinsic to Chinese cultural. The Zhouyi focuses on the concept of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change. Its connection to generative art is natural: on the surface, generative art speaks of image or phenomenon, but at its core is an intrinsic law and logic. This is why Hailei uses generative art to articulate his experience of ancient Chinese philosophy and aesthetics.

Hailei uses computer code as his “brush” to paint. His generative artwork, like a traditional oil painting, is inspired by and reflects his personal vision, thoughts, philosophy and emotions.  The difference with a traditional painting is the use of computer technology in place of a brush. As Hailei says, “It's not Michelangelo’s brush that made art – it was the man.  Likewise, my computer code isn’t making the art, it’s me.”  For Hailei, computer language is simply another means of expressing the human experience, just like music and architecture are. 
 

Sarah Nind: Visions of Beijing & Shanghai - Melding the Virtual and the Real
Sarah Nind, born in Borneo and raised in Canada, employs oil painting with photographic processes in the production of a distinct body of work.  The resulting images exhibit characteristics of photography as an emotive and poetic medium  -- a recording device of the 'real'.  At the same time, imagery is transformed through the integration of paint.  This painted surface, with its ability to transcend the literal description, is addressed as a dimension to express and record emotional states and subjective realities.  “Rather than being a dramatic narrative, my work questions history, the construction of time as a lineal process, and the distinction between the real and the virtual."

Vincent Goetz – Digital Meditations

For American photographer, Vince Goetz, photography is all about technology as a means of revealing what he sees – which isn’t always what other people or even the camera lens sees. The advent of digital photography interested Vince not only because the process has essentially become a green technology, but it set his own imagination free to go beyond what the camera saw. Although Vince is conservative in his image manipulation, it’s clear that every once in a while he pushes the limits of his own and the viewer’s imagination.  Vince says, “I find that one of the most appealing parts of photography is to create images where the eyes rest in the image, and I strive to create images where the eyes and the brain relax.  In a sense they are pieces of meditation, visions of the complexity of the world we are a part of.”  His micro-studies of rusted metal and deteriorating materials are particularly engaging – and when printed on canvass, they take on the texture and look of the hides of imaginary animals.  It’s like seeing hides from Steven Spielberg created creatures ready to be made into cutting edge purses and shoes.