#island6

Shel Silverstein led one of the most interesting lives that has been lived in the last century. A college dropout, artist, and writer, one might have expected to find him waiting tables or washing toilets. Instead, he was a soldier, a cartoonist and columnist for playboy, and a playwright before becoming a beloved children’s book author. He didn’t get there using alliteration… but agreeably for almost anyone, he used it after. One poem in particular is the anthem of our age: Standing is Stupid. In this poem, he argues that physical activity is useless and that instead we should spend our time lying down (truly he was ahead of his time). After taking his advice, lying and thinking for what felt like a lifetime, the little mysteries have become elucidated: it’s all in the lights. Those bright lights, those flashing lights—those that make us turn our heads and hold position with mouths hanging open. They’re just…so Shanghai, and their movement almost makes me forget where we are.



"Blinks and Blares" (眨眼和刺耳声)

102*102cm

island6.org/blinksandblares

"Seize The Means Of Pollination" (抓住授粉的方法)

Graffiti. When we strip the layers of painted meaning down to the brick, what are we left with? What were those early experimenters in 1983 New York City trying to express? The underground nature of the medium lends itself to an energetic feeling of wild reformation, of a mode that subverts not only the artworld, but those other forces of colonization, greed, and evil present in all corners of discourse. Were the imaginative needs of those artists so different from those of their forefathers? Is the Peranakan pattern on this vase any less graffiti than what’s painted onto the wall across the street? Maybe it boils down to a difference in the how rather than the what, a difference of expression rather than one of content. We’ve heard well-dressed people discuss in hushed yet excited tones heavy with the smell of expensive champagne that graffiti is a return to something primitive, to a preliterate time of big Gods and little gods, that it’s a “good investment…”. And so far, they’ve been right, but only because with a snap of their fingers and a clap of their hands, they’ve decided this is how it would be.

"Seize The Means Of Pollination" (抓住授粉的方法)

47*66cm. Unique

Art for sale contact [email protected]

The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of creation.- “Tao Te Ching”

What do you taste when you hear Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring? What colors do you see wisping and waving through the air when Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries presents itself to your ears? And where do you go when you hear Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi’s High Mountain and Flowing Water? Stravinsky questioned how we separate civilization from barbarism, and how we might tell the difference between them. His return to Russian folk traditions caused mixed reactions from patrons and critics alike, with the opening night of Rites described later as a “riot” of booms, crashes, and hisses. Wagner demanded domination with the gentle hum that grows into thunderous roars separated by metallic clanks. He demanded synthesis. Valkyries was a song of war, an auditory claim for praxis which has been motivated time and time again. Similarly Yu and Zhong plucked their guzheng strings to the plunk-plunk-plunk of water flowing down a mountain which reflected the harmony of their own friendship. So what shall our other senses make of noise if music represents mirrored synthesis, domination, and perfect harmony?

Art for sale: [email protected]

During the Second World War, the Enigma Machine created a possible 159 million million million code combinations each day. Every morning, the code was reset and new possibilities for secret communications would burst forth. What many forget is that of these vast possibilities, the Enigma code still ended in a singularity, in actionable consequences, in history. In other words, possibilities don’t stay possibilities forever. Eventually even the Hugh Hefners, Richard Bransons, and all the other bon viveurs who lap up possibilities become settled. The shifting nature of realities dictates that what was taboo yesterday is in fashion today; what was new 5 minutes ago is today a tired dog. The trick is to accept the target as moving, to live comfortably within whatever circumstances you find yourself. Some scholars of the Zhuangzi have identified this behavioral trend in Daoist texts, coining the term “genuine pretending” to describe it. Destruction and hollowing of the self allows for more adaptation to the present moment; in shifting times, what else can you ask for?

Hungry for something succulent and packed with flavor? Allow me to suggest the exquisite and iconic Jinling Salted Duck (盐水鸭). The earliest records of the dish date back over a thousand years ago to the Six Dynasties (AD 222-589). A keystone of Jinling cuisine, the tender white duck meat is fragrant and moist, with taut skin. The savory dish has been popular with many throughout the years, especially the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty: Zhu Yuanzhang. Legend says there was a dispute over a loud noise in the city, so the emperor issued a decree to kill all the roosters in the land. The people of Nanjing (formerly known as Jinling), had no chickens to eat, so the answer was simple... Ducks! This gave rise to the prominence of duck dishes, salted duck being one of the most exceptional. If you ever find yourself craving it, head to Yunnan Nan Lu food street. You’ll also find boiled chicken, spareribs with rice cakes, Nanxiang steamed bread, and Shandong dumplings. Although personally we recommend the unique salted duck. Let’s keep it between us!

51*51cm

TFT display, acrylic painting, media player, Vietnamese linen, teakwood frame

Art for sale : [email protected] 

Follow us on Instagram: island6_gallery

Enrico Fermi famously suggested in what is now known as “The Fermi Paradox” that we really should’ve been visited by extraterrestrials by now. The general idea of it is this: where the hell is everybody? There’s so much out there and everything is so old that probability would suggest a visit or two ought have graced up. Well maybe, maybe not. There are three logical explanations (aside from the obvious ones that they already have visited, or that aliens don’t exist, and never have). The first is that they accidentally blew themselves up while learning to make weapons. Any advanced civilization will, at some point, figure out how to split an atom. Where and why they decide to split one though is totally up to them. The second is that their civilization already ran its course and eventually died off long before we were around to notice. Maybe they ruled the universe for millions of years...three billion years ago. The third option... they see us, they’ve been watching us, and it is only a matter of time before they strike. Let’s hope it’s not the third.

46*65cm

RGB LED display, acrylic painting, Vietnamese linen, teakwood

Art for sale : [email protected] 

Follow us on Instagram: island6_gallery