Floating Works

Curator: Nara Huang

Artist: Kang Shixin

Organizer: HOW Art Museum (Wenzhou)

Poster designed by Xulei Li

The works of artist Kang Shixin are imbued with dramatic visual language, emotional expression, and thematic depth. Much like Sun Wukong, who could transform into anything by plucking a single hair, Kang Shixin's artistic creations undergo myriad variations, unrestrained and boundless, echoing the spirit of "Journey to the West." In Wu Cheng'en's narrative, Sun Wukong is portrayed as unpredictable and carefree, never tethered by explanations for his transformations—akin to an artist's approach to their artworks, ever-changing and infinite. In essence, when Kang Shixin faces his canvas, he encounters Wu Cheng'en, and what he paints embodies the freedom, carefreeness, and heroic spirit of Sun Wukong. The exhibition unfurls from a single peach in the artwork "Wukong's Seventy-Two Transformations," showcasing how the artist adeptly captures the "seventy-two changes" experienced in the ebb and flow of life.

Kang Shixin's oeuvre has evolved from early narrative and figurative styles to vividly expressing the undulating waves of his inner world through strong personal colors and abstract imagery. Changes extend beyond stylistic shifts, incorporating transformations in representational images within the artist's repertoire. From eyeless figures in "Chess Piece Cannon Fodder Chronicles" to the flowing-haired river demon emerging from a sea of flowers in "Bao Ta Zhen River Demon," and the "us" transformed into "An Electronic Screen" in the internet age. As time passes, the characters in the artworks seem to be veiled in a hazy palette, inviting continual reinterpretation. Kang Shixin's works undergo seventy-two changes in the eyes of the viewers, like a demon- revealing mirror reflecting myriad faces, sparking boundless imagination, allowing a story frozen in a moment to infinitely unfold.

Simultaneously, the recurring floating and elusive themes and elements in Kang Shixin's seventy-two transformations are inherently changeable. His works possess dynamic fluidity. For example, the tumultuous and struggling masses in the "Thirty-Six Strategies" series depict the ever-changing nature of war. In Kang Shixin's more abstract recent works, dancing flowers and the incessant flow of rivers symbolize new insights into change. The artist captures fleeting moments and current feelings and thoughts on the canvas. Art does not necessarily need to rely on realism for depiction. Just like Sun Wukong, we can soar through the sky, dive into the depths of the sea, traverse mountains and hills, and immerse ourselves in a sea of flowers within Kang Shixin's works. It can travel under the sun and moon without casting shadows, freely crossing the boundaries of reality.

The exhibition “Floating Works” is a journey full of drama and change, expressing the artist's rich mindset and creative diversity in the ebb and flow of life. Through the portrayal of freedom, carefreeness, and heroism, the exhibition presents the artist's exploration of the diverse facets of the world.

Nara Huang