As The Butterfly Said To Chuang Tzu

Fri, May 26
6:00pm-9:00pm
Free

Join us Friday May 26th, 6-9pm for the opening of As The Butterfly
Said To Chuang Tzu, new work by Michael Zheng.
The Taoist sage Chuang Tzu once dreamed he had turned into a
butterfly. When he awoke, he couldn't help but wonder whether it was
he, who had dreamed of becoming a butterfly, or the butterfly, who
had dreamed of becoming Chuang Tzu.

Michael Zheng's recent work explores similar questions concerning
perception and the sense we have of our place in the world, by
complicating the distinction between objects and their contexts. He
engages the walls of the gallery itself, so that the frame for his
work no longer simply circumscribes the art, it IS the art. Or where
is the frame?

An apparently blank wall of the gallery, upon closer inspection,
reveals a photograph of the wall pasted tightly to it. What is the
distinction between the wall and the image of the wall? What here, if
anything, is presented? Further on, a similar, slightly transparent,
photograph covers a hole that Zheng has cut through the wall, begging
the question: what here is being revealed, and what concealed? Sounds
from the street outside echo uncannily from a speaker in the center
of the gallery, both providing a frame for incidental, everyday,
phenomena that calls new attention to their often surprising
aesthetic qualities, and introduces the contextual frame for the
gallery itself into the gallery, complicating the distinction between
reality and the exhibition. Other work in the show plays with the
distinction between words and images, and the polyvalence of words
themselves, to provoke new connotations through these confusions, and
to question the basis of "meaning." And an experiment with flower
seeds and instructions for the audience to water the seeds
"encouragingly," "discouragingly," and "neutrally," explores
questions concerning the relationship between faith and facts.

Venue:

Mission17
2111 Mission Street
San Francisco

Additional Info:


www.mission17.org