Hunsand Space (Beijing) will present Gao Yingpu's exhibition:Night Shadows · Night Obsession on December 21, 2024.
The night seems to offer an alternate spiritual self, and so, the noisy and chaotic nightlife becomes a playground where people freely release their desires. While fulfilling the need for leisure, it brings immense joy and satisfaction. This intense, dopamine-driven sensation allows people to experience immediate "pleasure" that quickly turns into "addiction." As a result, the nightlife, filled and wrapped in dopamine, becomes a place where men and women depend on their emotions. In this environment, identities blur, social relationships lose significance, and only the relentless and uncaring pulsation of dopamine continues to circulate infinitely. It seems that, in a sense, total immersion has become a temporary mental state for some contemporary youth.
For a long time, Gao Yingpu's works have appeared to showcase a kind of nighttime adrenaline, one that mirrors the explosive force of youth, releasing impulses, chaos, and fleeting brilliance after piercing the nerves. In Gao Yingpu's creations, one often sees the magical reflections of people in midnight settings. Under dim lighting, bodies, sunglasses, hair, nails, and rising smoke all shimmer with a cold glow. The bodies twist and turn, and souls gradually begin to drift. In those moments of drifting, shadow-like tremors occur, resembling a fleeting time difficult to capture with the naked eye. At that moment, time may not need to be excessively brilliant in the daylight; the present feels like eternity and beauty.
As the artist says: “Youth may fade, but its essence takes on new forms and stays with us throughout life. My yearning for a better world is something instinctive.”
