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Chen Zhiguang’s Latest Solo Exhibition “Migrates” to Shanghai

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Chen Zhiguang’s Latest Solo Exhibition

“Migrates” to Shanghai

When a 12-meter giant ant sculpture emerges outside the Shanghai Powerlong Museum, the message is clear: the artist of ants, Chen Zhiguang, is here to make a statement.

Chen’s latest solo exhibition “Ants Crawling”, which was launched at the museum on May 3, features the artist’s decade-long creative obsession with ants and recent exploration of severed trunks spanning over painting, photography, video, installation and sculpture.

For Chen, ants and severed trunks, as symbols of active and passive movement respectively, discuss his long-term topic of interest: migration. With these works, he calls for respect for each individual and his or her personal history.

Since 2003, Chen uses ants as a metaphor of people in the contemporary world, and applies images of these enlarged creatures to create ever-new fables. The ants he puts in different circumstances seem to lose their individualities and disappear within groups. Meanwhile, his ants are anything but fragile and weak.Their visual tensity echoes the artist’s own boldness.

The 12-meter public sculpture titled “War”, created in 2017 and made of stainless steel, is an extremely powerful example. It is the artist’s gift to the Shanghai Powerlong Museum, and will be part of the museum’s permanent collection. Magical and impactful, it perfectly complements the exterior space.

Meanwhile, Chen observes the severed trunks and their helpless fates with an Eastern calmness and simplicity. Yet he is never a sentimentalist: he clearly speaks of the strength and tenacity of drifters, which is another testimony to his per spective of life shown in the ants series.

Thus, Chen dramatizes the imagination, cravings and strength of individuals trapped in the times and social upheavals, until they can no longer be overlooked or underrepresented.

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