Vernissage: On Nature and Insanity

About

“On Nature and Insanity” assembles the work of three contemporary artists from China: Xia Peng and Yu Linhan, both based in Berlin, and Yu Aijun, living and working in Shenyang. Each of them tackles the problem of perception in a world that is increasingly dominated by technology and virtual reality. Although quite distinct from another and each different in their approach, their paintings & drawings unite in an attempt to restore a feeling of nature and a natural state of mind — whatever that may mean. 

It does not come as a surprise that their artistic attempts oftentimes seem to border on the verge of insanity. Yet, “insanity”, as Jean Dubuffet has famously said, “is super-sanity”. It is in this sense that their works function on a meta-level in opening up different perspectives on our “nature”, such as, literally, land- and sea- scapes, as well as industrial environments and virtual reality. In face of a world in which nature is radically transformed by the artificial, “insanity” might not seem so insane after all.