Art and harmony at Xintiandi
Adash of art was added into the reviving hustle and bustle in Xintiandi, with an annual design festival unveiled this week in the city’s downtown landmark. It’s one of the first few public art events in the city, even in the country, after months of a nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus.
A total of 25 pieces of public art installations and pop-up stores are on display during the Xintiandi Design Festival, spanning a dozen malls and plazas of the shopping and entertainment hub. The two-week event, with its “Together” theme, embraces diversity and calls for living in harmony.
“We are destined to be different, so are our artworks. What we can do is to show respect and tolerance, and seek common ground,” said Cao Jing, designer and co-curator of the event.
The Shanghai-based artist has two of his own pieces on display. A set of large red kites hanging up on trees greet passers-by at the entrance to the shikumen-style neighborhood of Xintiandi on Taichang Road. Entitled “Yuan,” from zhiyuan or kites, this installation made with Dupont Tyvek “will hopefully whisk the local audience back to their childhood.”
“It also bears the good wishes for the ultimate arrival of spring,” Cao added.
The image of the kite is channeled throughout the event, whether in some of the artworks, or in the form of name tags on each piece’s information board, or among the topics of weekend workshops.
“Shimmer,” another piece by Cao, comprises myriad pieces of prismatic glass. The installation will gently swing and rotate in the breeze, and shimmer in the light. The artist deems the whole piece as a metaphor for society, each piece of glass standing for a single person or a certain race.
“However distinctive we are in gender, skin color, language, culture and ideas, we human beings are bound in one community.
“We affect each other, collaborate with and coexist with each other, based on universal beliefs and shared emotions,” he said. Cao replaced the original stainless steel with prismatic glass to cheer viewers and ward off any emotional chill that the months-long lockdown had brought.
Post-pandemic reflection
The novel coronavirus has become a major inspiration for most of the artists and designers at this event, who have taken the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between humans, and between humans and the Earth.
An installation by Kokaistudios features a glowing Earth wrapped inside a large stand-up plastic water roller. The Earth can only be seen from outside the roller, implying the current social distancing rules. On the ground are stickers reading: “Looking at the world in a different view” in multiple languages.
Entitled “See-soul,” an interactive piece by Vave Studio looks exactly like a couple of see-saws, only with large mirrors in between. “It seems like a device that you can play with by yourself, yet in fact, you have to work with the person on the other end,” designer Hu Haijie explained.
“It’s just like in today’s society, collaboration is quite necessary.”
“Hello” by DNA Design & Art is a sculpture that “personifies bank notes,” according to Allen Yang, designer and co-owner of the studio.
Yang said that money is the very thing, or image, that brought the designers of the studio together. They chose to place the sculpture at the exit of a populous Metro station to see if it could attract people to stop, look and think about the relationship between humans and money.
Other artists dig deep into the healing power of art.
“Happy Together” by More Design Office features 13 interactive swings on which people can rest and chat while music plays automatically.
Public art projects provide “an exceptional chance for artists to introduce the general public to arts, to relieve and comfort, to speak up,” Cao said.
“It is the responsibility of an artist, as well as a civilian.”