Xue Ruozhe: The Plurals

In his series “The Plurals”, Xue Ruozhe experiments with the idea of time and space, which feel strangely unreal, familiar and unknown at the same time, absent or absurd. A detail or an unexpected element (the seventh foot in “Left Footed”, for instance), unnoticed at first, may disrupt an apparently ordinary scene, and in several paintings the dark tones enforce the timelessness and the ambiguity defining the works by hiding the context.

In this decontextualized parallel universe, figures, forms and gestures are multiplied, yet without the aim of achieving a perfect replica, but to reflect the concept of plurality and indicate the possible interpretations that the viewer may consider when observing the work. The viewer becomes an observer of the characters which are depicted themselves as examining their doubles, their shadows according to the artist, and the nothingness before them. And they appear to have the advantage of knowing something that the audience cannot access directly. Refusing to face the curious spectator, they rest in deep silence and are presented in an unsettling stillness – even the movement of the girl turning around in “Cancelled Landscape” seems static, while the “Escalator” is invisible. Transcendence becomes a moment, an experience defying the limits of time and space, everlasting and all-embracing.

Xue Ruozhe challenges our expectations of reality, and instead of revealing and solving the enigma, guides us to the crossroads of meaning to choose our own way of seeing.