The construction and development in recent decades have made it a crazy super city. The craziness is reflected in the large number of landmark buildings, the ever-expanding city size, the huge number of exhibitions and performances (they’re endless) and the soaring living costs. The people here are hijacked by money and power. They have created the city but are devoured by it, living in wide-spreading anxiety.
As an artist, I think the scene is exciting. You can observe the state of people in an economic relationship, as well as the changes in the lifestyle. This is a city that is always pursuing internationalization and a sense of future and is constantly renewed. People of different ages and classes try to get involved in the city in their own way. In Shanghai, a large number of old buildings have been demolished, but a small part of them remain, which form a spatial level. Spaces formed by old and new buildings from different time periods interlace and layer. Sometimes, these spaces belong to different groups of people: foreigners vs locals, common people vs intellectuals, the rich vs the poor, businessmen vs migrant workers, the elderly vs young people.
There is a sense of distance culturally and psychologically between the different groups. A city is a stack of different spaces. In my work, I also transform things of different times and cultural identities into layers of matter and images and stack them up. The layering in painting is not only about painting, but also connected to social spaces.