Summer Reading Club #18 | Xiaolonghua

In 2017, Northing brought ten Norwegian artists to China for the first time and launched the “China Meets Norway in a Bookshelf” project. The first stop was Banana Fish Bookstore on Shiquan Road, where the partnership between Northing and artist Xiaolonghua began…This August, artist Xiaolonghua held their solo exhibition The Great Migration at Northing Space in Bergen, Norway. Behind the exhibition lies a deep reflection on their seven-year journey, as well as a forward-looking perspective. After the opening day, Northing’s publishing arm, Kinakaal , joined Xiaolonghua at the 2024 CHART Art Book Fair in Copenhagen, where they presented Xiaolonghua’s new work Kua Fu Chasing the Sun.For the 18th edition of the Bananafish Summer Reading Club, artist Xiaolonghua and Ben, the curator of Northing Space, will share stories about this experience and discuss the art scene and artistic ecosystem of small Nordic cities. 

 

 

About the Guest

Xiaolonghua

Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Shanghai University Academy of Fine Arts, Xiaolonghua currently works and lives in Shanghai. Their creative practice spans across painting, installation, comics, and sculpture. Xiaolonghua’s work mainly explores the breaking of the shapes, textures, and spaces of ready-made objects, and through this process, discovers the connections behind them and new creative possibilities. This involves capturing textured, either three-dimensional or flat shapes, as well as the relationships and narratives that emerge spontaneously between these forms.

 

Yu Wenhou (Ben)

A member of the Norwegian Curators Association and a board member of the Norwegian Crafts Association, Ben is one of the founders of Northing Space and the Norwegian publisher Kinakaal Forlag. Under the pen name Ning Meng, he also works as a translator of Nordic languages and English literature. Currently based in Bergen, Norway, Ben focuses on the promotion and dissemination of Asian culture in Northern Europe.

 

Event Date: Saturday, September 21,2024

Time: 15:00-17:00

 

Xiaolonghua’s Solo Exhibition in Bergen

 

Since 2016, artist Xiaolonghua has been compiling his experimental works into a series, later naming it The Great Migration, which encompasses a variety of paintings and sculptures. The tools, household appliances, musical instruments, and various discarded parts he uses have all been retired from their original functions. Yet, in their moments of stillness, they remain “alive”—perhaps hidden in a corner or buried amidst clutter. The artist liberates these objects from their predetermined fate, giving them new appearances and identities. More importantly, he embarks on a journey of migration for them. By transcending the limits of time and space, people are invited to experience the past and the future. Xiaolonghua illustrates the possibilities of survival before, during, and after large-scale migrations in our imagination.
“Nothing is extinct; we just can no longer imagine its existence.” — Marcus Lüpertz

At the exhibition’s opening, Xiaolonghua unveiled his new work, Artist Box: Kua Fu Chasing the Sun, a multi-narrative puzzle. Kua Fu Chasing the Sun is inspired by an ancient myth. In modern society, the method of preserving memories through oral storytelling has nearly disappeared. This work is Xiaolonghua’s attempt to reshape these stories passed down through generations. He merges his own interpretations and extracts narrative elements from scattered fragments found in various sources. (For the textual part of Kua Fu, after the visual aspects were completed, Xiaolonghua invited Xiao Yong, founder of Beijing’s POSTPOST Space and 3standardstoppage, to contribute the writing.)

 

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