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M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Guan Yi, 2013, © Liang Juhui Estate
Liang Juhui 梁鉅輝
City 城
2002
City is a mixed-media installation that consists of sixteen hexagonal tiers stacked to form a pagoda. The immense scale of the work evokes a perceptual space, where natural and man-made urban environments collapse together as a result of the fast-paced and never-ending expansion of the city. In the windows of each tier are photographs of the backs of people from different walks of life in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Pingyao. A digital video projected on the floor shows overlapping images of people, objects, and buildings. These images serve as evidence of the transformation of small Chinese cities into metropolises. With its emphasis on verticality, the inseparability of light and colour, as well as the abstracted traffic noises emerging from the video, City is an awe-inspiring structure that showcases the dynamics and vitality of society. These elements excite viewers’ imaginations and challenge the stability of perception. The work is enriched with multiple dimensions: not only does it express the physical change of the urban city and its direct impact on human life, it also cleverly highlights the cultural shifts that occur in this environment.
Liang created two versions of City. The first one was produced for the 2003 Canton Express exhibition. The second version was produced and displayed in Shenzhen as part of Playing at Home / Playing Away: The Maze of Reality, the exhibition developed by Vitamin Creative Space that ran concurrently. The version on display in 2017 Canton Express is the one that was in Venice. Even though the six-meter-tall Venice version is smaller than the Shenzhen counterpart — which measured eight metres in height — it is still an immense monument. Due to height limitations, only a section of City is displayed at the M+ Pavilion. This iteration sits on a plinth with an outline showing the size of the largest tier that formed the base of the original work.
Liang created two versions of City. The first one was produced for the 2003 Canton Express exhibition. The second version was produced and displayed in Shenzhen as part of Playing at Home / Playing Away: The Maze of Reality, the exhibition developed by Vitamin Creative Space that ran concurrently. The version on display in 2017 Canton Express is the one that was in Venice. Even though the six-meter-tall Venice version is smaller than the Shenzhen counterpart — which measured eight metres in height — it is still an immense monument. Due to height limitations, only a section of City is displayed at the M+ Pavilion. This iteration sits on a plinth with an outline showing the size of the largest tier that formed the base of the original work.
Canton Express: Art from the Pearl River Delta. M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong, 23 June–10 September 2017
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