Xindi WANG: Natrual Selection: Solo Project
BONIAN SPACE will present artist Xindi WANG's solo project Natural Selection from November 2nd to December 1st, 2024, featuring over ten recent works based on the forms of sea shells. Various shells are not only natural objects that the artist has been collecting since childhood but also carry her memories from different periods, becoming footnotes of time flowing through life. Through contemplating the traces of growth in both self and natural objects, Xindi's practice intuitively navigates the cognitive boundaries between self-existence and the physical world. Her work progresses from contemplating life's vessels to exploring the interplay between time-space and memory, and ultimately to examining individual self-construction—all culminating in an almost meditative ontological awareness that simultaneously draws near yet remains eternally distant.
In her recent works, Xindi's creation reveals a path from exploring form and material to deeper painterly ontology. Her depiction of natural objects gradually transcends specific spatial and morphological constraints, establishing spatial extensibility through inherent, quasi-abstract geometric properties. Meanwhile, she maintains subtle figurative elements through meticulous observation and refined texture work, imbuing her forms with both tactile materiality and organic vitality.
The "Infinite Receptacle" series features dominant spiral circular structures, where threads radiate outward from a central point. The interplay between centripetal and centrifugal forces suggests the multiplicity of existence—simultaneously representing outward growth and inward reflection, material containment, and spiritual dwelling, while serving as a metaphor for life's self-actualization.
In the "Duplicity" series, Xindi employs a "picture within a picture" compositional approach, juxtaposing object forms across various temporal and spatial dimensions. By incorporating shells that hold memories of loved ones alongside contemporary observations, she creates layers of temporal and memorial contemplation that, like growth rings, layer upon layer, interweave into a rich polyphony of personal development and temporal convergence.
Her latest works, The Architect and Natural Selection, delve deeper into how living beings make choices and construct themselves within their environment. The relationship between natural objects and their attachments reveals the dialectic of necessity and contingency in life's choices: beneath the apparent mechanical adherence to survival instincts lies creative adaptation to circumstance; within seemingly predetermined life paths, individuals express their agency and self-awareness in nuanced ways.
For Xindi, "natural selection" transcends simple determinism, representing instead the delicate balance life achieves between necessity and chance. Her reverence for and curiosity about nature guide her sustained observation of its transcendental essence, allowing her to illustrate how living beings construct themselves amid the tension between instinct and consciousness, ultimately creating a visual allegory of existential wholeness.