Black Box Exhibition in Singapore Showcases Chinese Artists' Pandemic-Era Critique of Authoritarianism

Ames Yavuz Gallery in Singapore presents 'Black Box,' an exhibition featuring 12 Chinese artists whose works respond to China's authoritarian regime and the psychological toll of the pandemic. Yang Xiao's video 'Goodbye Language' (2023) captures Shanghai's 2022 lockdown with AI-generated propaganda slogans, while Tong Tianqing's ink painting 'Wrest' (2022) depicts greyhounds fighting over a rabbit in a heart-shaped composition. Wu Chen's 'Gold, Flies, Gems, Bowling Ball' (2024) portrays a vulgar crown adorned with jewels and skulls. Liu Sheng's painting 'Noon Haze' (2024) shows a funerary custom in rural Guangdong, and Hu Jiayi's video 'Boxing' (2020) features the artist dancing in an abandoned mall. Xiyadie's paper cutout 'Sewn' (1999) expresses queer desire, and Jiang Zhi's video 'Name (Aranya)' (2024) films actors blowing leaves in an empty resort. The exhibition, which runs from 29 August to 19 October 2024, reflects a lineage of cynicism traced to the 1990s 'cynical realism' movement post-Tiananmen. Many works would be impossible to show in China due to their content, highlighting themes of resistance, grief, and coded communication under strict information control.