Song Dong's Major Survey at Rockbund Art Museum Explores Reflection, Distortion and Time
The extensive exhibition 'I Don't Know the Mandate of Heaven' by Song Dong took place at Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum from January 21 to June 4, curated by Liu Yingjiu and Xu Tiantian. It showcased seven Chinese characters that encapsulate the artist's philosophy developed over fifty years. Noteworthy pieces included Mirror Hall (2016–17), featuring reflective surfaces, The Use of Uselessness: Bottle Rack Big Brother (2016), which resembles surveillance devices, and Abnormal Death (2014–16), portraying figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. The museum, housed in the former North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, also displayed Song's Wisdom of the Poor: Para-Pavilion (2011) and wrapped up with At Fifty, I Don't Know the Mandate of Heaven (2016–17). The exhibition received coverage in the Summer 2017 issue of ArtReview Asia.
Key facts
- Exhibition ran from 21 January to 4 June at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai
- Curated by Liu Yingjiu and Xu Tiantian
- Song Dong's most extensive survey to date in China
- Organized around seven Chinese characters: jing, ying, yan, jue, li, wo, ming
- Featured Mirror Hall (2016–17) with reflective panels in window frames
- Included The Use of Uselessness: Bottle Rack Big Brother (2016) with bottle surveillance cameras
- Showed Abnormal Death (2014–16) with rippling portraits of ten famous figures
- Presented Wisdom of the Poor: Para-Pavilion (2011) with porcelain sculptures in cabinets
Entities
Artists
- Song Dong
- Liu Yingjiu
- Xu Tiantian
- Martin Luther King Jr
- Marilyn Monroe
- Lei Feng
- Park Chung-hee
Institutions
- Rockbund Art Museum
- North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
- ArtReview Asia
Locations
- Shanghai
- China
- Jingdezhen