In the courtyard of a hutong siheyuan, explore the "Rooms with Stories" at the Jiangnan Garden Art Museum.
Early summer, the Nan Chizi Art Museum's new exhibition "Rooms with Stories" is now open. The exhibition showcases 60 paintings and 20 animated short films by artist Peng Wei, as well as 3 installation works.
The artistic inspiration for these works comes from the Dunhuang murals and Italian church murals. Peng Wei often draws herself into the paintings, attempting to regain the dual experience of "telling stories" and "watching stories" through painting and animation.
Coincidentally, the painter Peng Wei, who created the exhibition works, brought her friends to visit and listened to the artist's personal tour. Peng Wei's works seek entry points from traditional Chinese aesthetics, "disassembling" and "reconstructing" stories.
At the entrance of the exhibition, five "Festival" series works are arranged in a screen-like manner, imitating the architectural shadow wall, forming a traditional building's central layout for the presentation of this group of works. Peng Wei was inspired by legends of festivals such as the Yuan Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Qiqiao Festival, telling stories and feelings of people living together in the same space in a courtyard.
The "Tower" series tells stories about birth, death, kindness, love and hate, separation, and humans and pets. Peng Wei has long been fascinated by the "Tower", whether it's the Leifeng Tower, the Tower of Babel, the Tower of London, the Ivory Tower, or the Stupa... In the space that rises layer by layer, the story unfolds layer by layer, and people are immersed in it, feeling the superposition of spiritual dimensions in a seemingly overlapping space.
The animated short films of "We All Need Stories" are distributed in the exhibition space. In the past three years, because offline exhibitions could not be held, Peng Wei turned many of her paintings into animated form and personally selected the music. There is an old Nordic folk song that she likes, and she emailed the 80-year-old singer to communicate about the copyright, but did not receive a reply, so she asked the museum staff to hum a few lines and recorded them. For another piece of music, Peng Wei asked a friend who had just divorced to hum a section of "Wedding March".
In the "Journey" section of the second floor exhibition hall, the layout of the Dunhuang Grottoes can be seen everywhere, consciously echoing the Dunhuang elements in the paintings. Two works created on human models and silk shoes are placed in two inaccessible rooms.
In the exhibition, there is a series of small paintings depicting the folk story "Su Hui". Su Hui's husband was exiled to the border by Emperor Qin, and she suffered from missing him. She invented a kind of palindrome poem, which could express her longing and sorrow no matter how it was read, forwards, backwards, diagonally, or in any way. Su Hui sent the palindrome poem to her husband from afar, which was made of brocade woven with colorful silk threads.
[Peng Wei Solo Exhibition: Rooms with Stories]
Exhibition hall: Nan Chizi Art Museum
Address: 21 Pudusi West Lane, Dongcheng District, Beijing City.
Exhibition period: 2023.04.21-07.05
Opening hours: 10:00-17:00
Ticket purchase method: Reserve tickets through the official account of Nan Chizi Art Museum.