Shanghai-born artist and curator Xu Zhen created a mind-blowing installation back in 2013 when he ‘fused’ reversed bodies of Buddhist deities with classical Greek sculptures.
His ‘Eternity’ exhibition, has returned, via his art enterprise MadeIn Company, to take over Sydney.
The large-scale site-specific sculptural installation aims to challenge and reinterpret the ‘East meets West’ cliché by focusing on the infinite possibilities of contemporary art creation.
Xu’s ability to criticise the shibboleths of the global art world becomes apparent with a single look at the bodhisattvas and other Chinese religious figures stacked and attached by their necks to statues of the Parthenon.
“The work entitled ‘Eternity’ is concerned with the ‘fixed’ point of view,” Zu explained.
“Civilisation is constantly giving birth and inheriting through the process of creation.
“Only if you accept your own civilisation will you be able to realise that civilisation has no boundaries.”
White Rabbit Gallery, which is hosting the artworks, was established in 2009 in order to showcase collections of Chinese contemporary art.
The project is funded solely by the philanthropic Neilson Foundation and admission is free.
For more information on the gallery and the Eternity exhibition head to www.whiterabbitcollection.org