Saturday, May 07 07pm to 09pm
inCube Arts
314 W 52nd St, # 1, New York, New York 10019
Son: Signal of Authority
May 7 – 28, 2016
Curated by Boliang SHEN and Zhanglun DAI
Artists|YAN Xing, Rafael KELMAN, Ben HAGARI, CHEN Zhou
Opening Reception|Saturday, May 7, 7 – 9pm
Son, in modern era, is often portrayed as one who constantly strives to free himself from the Father. The modern Son is the Son that tends to forget, split, subvert and self-authorize.
Yet, Son always signals something that is outside of and superior to him, which presents itself as the Authority. Son could never truly be detached as he claims. The emancipation of modern Son, therefore, remains problematic.
Highlighting works of four artists, Yan Xing, Rafael Kelman, Ben Hagari, and Chen Zhou, who are all within 35 years old, “Son: Signal of Authority” investigates the situation of the concept of Son in our time, a time that the Authority, whether household or public, is believed to be precarious and obscure. Rather than justifying the emancipation of modern Son, here Son is rendered as a fluctuating signal of the Authority, and a sort of contemporary culture symptom that needs to be interrogated.
Through presenting a newspaper archive about an interview of the father of Mohammed Atta, one of the 9-11 hijackers, the exhibition also probes how the alienation of modern paternal binding significantly infects the public sphere and further endangers the political realm of our time.
A never-ending voice from Shakespeare’s The Tempest haunts the exhibition space. Listening is a significant device in the show. To listen is to recall, to be re-connected with, and to receive something from beyond. It is in this listening that Son is liberated from any present bondage, and keeps opening to “the other” that is unknown and unpredictable.
For more information visit: http://www.incube-arts.org/upcoming.html