Liang Ban - Landscape Browser, curated by Bao Dong

de Sarthe Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Liang Ban, entitled Landscape Browser, opening on December 9th in Beijing. Featuring new work that encompasses installation, video, and spray paint, Liang Ban’s first solo exhibition at de Sarthe Gallery will continue through February 26th, 2017.

Liang Ban’s practice gained recognition with his groundbreaking “Hand of God” (2015) series. In this series the artist traversed deserts, forests, rivers and various other landscapes while carrying his mobile phone in order to connect the device’s internal operating system with the external environment around him. He achieved this by displaying images of scenery onto the mobile phone, then staging phone within the landscape and recording the resultant dialogue between device and nature. The videos portray a seemingly innocuous moment, but while viewing the work one quickly realizes the poetry contained within addresses contemporary notions of society, culture, and most prominently—landscape. An important component of Landscape Browser, the “Hand of God” series begins a conversation about the connotations and implications of landscape and how the subject is portrayed as a social commodity today.

Furthering an exploration of landscape, a major installation, “Evening Ramble” (2016) recreates a version of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the gallery. Unlike the actual memorial, “Evening Ramble” is covered in dirt, grime, and bird droppings made by a living parrot. Another piece titled “The Earth Magician No.1” (2016) is a 3D topological map that is hung on a wall of the gallery and covered with phosphorescent spray-paint that extends off of the map and onto the wall itself. A new video work, “Hole” (2016), plays in reverse footage of Coca-Cola cans and coins being thrown into a deep cave. Collectively, the artworks approach an alternate and critically engaging theory behind the significance of landscape in contemporary global society.

Born in 1985 in Guangxi province, China, Liang Ban currently works and lives in Beijing. He attended the Guangxi Art Institute in Nanning, China, from which he graduated in 2010 with a B.F.A. Liang Ban’s solo exhibitions include Slightly Confused, Taikang Space, Beijing, China (2016) and Game, A-4 Contemporary Arts Center, Chengdu, China (2014). Recent group museum exhibitions include Position Fixing, Arte Place at the Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou, China (2016); Turning Point: Contemporary Art in China Since 2000, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2016); Olhares Interiores, Macao Museum of Art, Macao (2015); Polyphony II – Ecological Survey of Chinese Art – Beijing, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China (2014); Individual Growth – The Momentum of Contemporary Art, Shijiazhuang Art Museum, Shijiazhuang, China (2013) and Living・Being, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China (2012).