Νόστοι, translated as “Nóstoi”, is the title of the latest solo exhibition by Wu Xiaohai presented at Chunchen Research Center for Contemporary Art. While talking about this exhibition with CAFA ART INFO, the artist did not shy away from the fact that it was a “quickie” that he expected to embrace with fortuity. With his familiarity with the materials, his experience and confidence that have been accumulated over many years, and of course some mentality of creative game, Wu almost completed the preparations for it in one go at the fastest speed.
Exhibition View of “Nóstoi”
Some naturally anti-cultural stance is still implemented in Wu Xiaohai’s new works. The tents that once appeared in his paintings have been transformed into another chaotic form in this exhibition. The most conspicuous installation is built with discarded materials from the sculpture factory. Among the state like a tent, sculpture, and poultry farm, it has become a temporary residence for several white geese bought from the farmers’ market.
Wu is reluctant to let go of the creator’s power and fun by using “culture” as bait to tease the audience. In detail, this has a Dadaist “prank” temperament full of absurdity, offensiveness and humor, but the search for a position and significance for the work in the established knowledge system is exactly what the artist continues to satirize in his works and what he wants to remind people to be vigilant.
Exhibition View of “Nóstoi”
How to Avoid Becoming AI
“Nóstoi” (Returns) is a lost epic that tells the returning stories of the Greek heroes who captured Troy.
The texts on the walls were written by Wu Xiaohai:
On that distant shore,
Where time and space dissolve into nothingness,
A boundless wind whispers,
Carrying a call long forgotten.
This is not a realm of matter,
But a domain of the soul,
Where divinity and humanity are one,
Where heaven and earth are never apart.
Everything,
From the tiniest detail to the vastness of fate,
Tells the story of return.
No past, no future,
Only the awakening of now.
Every star, an unfinished line of divine poetry;
Every thread, a truth of humanity yet to be discovered.
Exhibition View of “Nóstoi”
The meaning of “Nóstoi” for Wu Xiaohai can be a language game, a return to nature, a return to the basic perception of human being, ability to act and subjectivity, or a return of art to its inexplicable mystery, ambiguity and irreplaceable nature. Such as, at least for now, people who have been slightly trained can still quickly distinguish the subtle differences between a painting made by human hands and an image generated by AI, just like identifying a smell.
Five small works of mixed media placed on wooden tables have a unified gray-white appearance with the largest work in the exhibition hall. These works are named by the artist as Janus (a two-faced god in Roman mythology who controls doors, beginnings and transitions), Bellona (the goddess of war and destruction), Fortuna (the god of fate and opportunity), Saturnus (the god of agriculture, time and harvest) and Silvanus (the patron saint of forests, fields and nature).
The artist reassembled the discarded materials such as racks, sticks, canvas, broken bricks, steel wires, steel plates and so on that he collected in the sculpture factory in a relatively random way, and he tried to endow them with vague images. After the plaster was dripped, perhaps people can only use their imagination and efforts to capture some seemingly plausible images and symbols in the chaos, maybe it’s a big spider, or two figure skaters, a plaster head leaning against a big tree...
Janus, 80x130x43cm, Mixed media, 2022-2025
Bellona, 67x83x33cm, Mixed media, 2022-2025
Fortuna, 110x200x70cm, Mixed media, 2022-2025
What’s dangerous for the artist is not that art may be replaced by AI, but the possibility that viewers accept the cultural interpretation without thinking when they are confronted with artworks, or artists take advantage of the situation and strategically apply concepts to cater to the spectators’ preferences. As a result, they may forget that the over-connecting the works with Greek mythology is based on mental inertia and conforming to a certain convention of interpretation. To what extent does this viewing convention cultivate the audience to be overly invaded by common sense and “culture”? Isn’t the deep thinking mode based on rational inspection, screening and judgment based on classification constituting the way that AI analyzes works?” said Wu Xiaohai. Based on this, he set a trap for the viewers.
Saturnus, 82x87.5x65cm, Mixed media, 2022-2025
Silvanus, 151x50x36cm, Mixed media, 2022-2025
Who Decides What People See?
In recent years, innovative developments have been made in the field of artificial intelligence technologies. Wu Xiaohai has gone from initially curious experiments to more profound understanding. Now, he is more convinced of the unique significance of art, and he has connected art with “mythology” as well as the transcendence how the Creator made all things. This is not a wishfully emotional judgment, but a conclusion drawn by the artist after he has researched cutting-edge technologies. He has participated in the development of smart car cameras for a long time. The cooperation process with artificial intelligence researchers made him understand that the greatest advantage of the human eyes is that they can quickly adjust the focal length to screen and intelligently analyze the desirable information in the scene, and they have the initiative, adaptability and judgment ability that technologies cannot achieve.
Exhibition View of “Nóstoi”
For Wu Xiaohai, it’s amazing that nature “creates the most complex changes with the simplest principles” which construct a diversified world. This reminds him of human creation. With a brush, an artist temporarily has the identity of the Creator. He hopes that he can also return to some of the simplest creative methods, with a more direct generation method, returning to the ambiguity and vagueness of art. For him, this is also the core advantage of art.
In recent years, Wu Xiaohai has begun to adopt a special outdoor sketching way. Relying on large-scale creation, he “paints what he sees” and starts from the corner. The artist quickly and directly lets his hands follow the changing focus of his eyes to reproduce nature and record every frame he sees. By turning himself into a “scanner”, he forgets the single-point perspective, color tone, tonality, spatial awareness and so on that have been engraved in his consciousness, as creation has almost become an instinctive reaction.
Exhibition View of “Nóstoi”
From murals, graffiti, and easel paintings to the mixed media and installations in “Nóstoi”, Wu Xiaohai challenges the constraints of established knowledge systems such as culture and education in his creation, and he further clears the “negative” effects brought by artistic training, such as the creative mode that he “jumps from one concept to another”. On the other hand, through site-specific and social intervention, the artist also puts forward similar questions for the audience, “Who decides what you see?”
Text by CAFA ART INFO
Image Courtesy of the Artist
About the Exhibition
Dates: February 27–March 23, 2025
Venue: Chunchen Research Center for Contemporary Art
Address: 706 Beisanjie, 798 Art Zone, No. 2 Jiuxianqiaolu, Chaoyang District, Beijing.
