"I'm Only as Good as My Secret" Curating and Artistic Statement
“我只能当我的秘密”策展和创作意图
March 2021
In the month of 2021, I volunteered at "Collector's Space".
This month-long exhibition showcases more than 30 private collected artworks of active collectors from Australia.
In the space, every piece of work receives the care and respect equivalent to its "value". But the backroom of the gallery is mouldy and damp, it’s littered with discarded materials and menial objects.
The artworks and the objects create a stark contrast within the gallery space, this coexistence and the separation of the two spaces aroused my thinking.
I wanted to use "waste" to create artistic value, thereby challenging the monetary value of art and discussing the "privilege" of exhibitions.
I decided to curate a secret performance installation exhibition in this space.
Every day, I only use materials found in the back of the gallery to make a temporary installation artwork (with a life span of 1-day) and put her in the gallery so that she can exist with the other art, yet secretly.
I broke the hierarchy of the gallery and took initiative to give my temporary installation an equal footing with expensive private collections.
And the secret existence of my temporary installation in this “authoritative” space becomes a language between art and non-art.
These low-value materials have gained the “right to speak” in the exhibition environment, and it forms a dialogue with the valuable and collected, creating a seesaw-like tension within this context.
My secret exhibition then explores the ideas of improvisation, temporarity, the permanent and impermanent nature of art and its authority.
At the same time, through observing the audience’s reaction to these temporary pieces, the secret exhibition studies the influence “exhibition environment” has over the audience’s perception of the artwork, thus challenging the "supremacy" of art and exhibition.
My intention is not to make pleasing works.
I want to elicit any reaction from the audience through this secret exhibition.
"Audience" is the final element of my secret exhibition. Their participation and reaction to seeing these installations act as the final activator of this exhibition.
From a curator’s perspective, I hope to stimulate the curiosity of the audience through the collision between my installation and the existing artwork in the gallery, make them doubt their own perspectives, question what is art, and reconsider what constitutes the value of art.
《我只能当我的秘密》展览包括13个单独的行为装置作品，它们完成于2021年3月6日到3月28日之间。
2021年3月份，我在一个名为“收藏家空间”的展览做志愿者。这个展览为期一个月，展出了30余件活跃于澳大利亚艺术圈的收藏家的私人藏品。
在这个空间里，每件艺术品都得到了符合它“价值”的照顾、尊重和瞻仰。而画廊后面的空间却潮湿发霉，堆放着废弃材料和零碎物品。
画廊前后的空间构成了鲜明的对比，处在两个空间中的物品也有着鲜明的对比，这种共存和分隔激发了我的思考，我希望给“废物”创造艺术价值，从而挑战艺术的金钱价值并探讨展览的“特权”。
我决定在这个空间里做一个秘密的行为装置展览，每天只用在画廊后面找到的材料和零碎物品做一件临时装置艺术作品，并把她摆在画廊里，让她秘密地栖身于其他艺术品中，擅自做主让她与昂贵的私人藏品平起平坐。
我打破了画廊里的等级制度，主动让我的临时装置与昂贵的私人收藏处于平等地位。
而我的临时装置在这个“权威”空间中的秘密存在，构成为了艺术与非艺术之间的语境，使这些低价值的材料在展览环境中获得“话语权”，与有价值的、被收藏的艺术品形成对话，也形成一个仿佛跷跷板一样相互牵扯的张力，继而探讨艺术的即兴性，临时性、永久性与权威性，同时通过观察观众的反应来研究“展览环境”对观众眼光和艺术自身价值的影响，从而挑战艺术和展览的“至高无上”。
我的意图并非作出令人赏心悦目的作品。
我想通过这个秘密展览激发起观众的反应，“观众”是我本次行为装置作品的最终元素，他们的参与和看到这些装置的反应是才这个艺术系列的开关，他们反应启动了这个展览。
从策展的角度切入，我希望通过我的装置和画廊里现有的艺术品构成的碰撞激发观众的好奇心，让他们怀疑自己的眼光，质疑什么是艺术，思考艺术的价值。
