Shubigi Rao and Tan Jing

Shubigi Rao: These Petrified Paths
Can storytelling lead to recollection of a nation’s shared identity? When transmitting knowledge, who determines what is worth preserving? How do fossil-fuel extractivism and energy supplies relate to lost archives and books? These are among the questions that drive artist and writer Shubigi Rao's first solo exhibition in China: These Petrified Paths.

Shubigi Rao considers both present-day and historical subjects, offering alternate viewpoints on contemporary displacement—be it of peoples, languages, cultures, or knowledge. Her poetic and humorous work offers an incisive critique of the problematic narrative of western civilization that shapes our existence.

In her Rockbund Art Museum exhibition, Rao has created phylogenetic “trees of knowledge” in the form of a large, three-dimensional energy pylon, 12 meters in height, punctuating the heart of the exhibition (the term phylogenic tree refers to a graphic diagram depicting lines of genetic descent from a common ancestor).

Branching across the gallery space are lines of transmission, of knowledge, energy, story-telling and power. By highlighting the obscured transmission of knowledge, experiences, and memories, These Petrified Paths is a call to action to celebrate different forms of knowledge and to learn—from the margins—how to evolve out of destruction, loss, death, and chaos.

These Petrified Paths also includes a newly commissioned feature-length film of the same title. Shot in September 2022 during the war in Armenia, the film weaves tales of local communities into a compelling narrative interlaced with memory, written and spoken word dialogue, and everyday existence. It delves into Armenia's enduring cultural relics, battles, and fragmented literary richness under duress. As Armenia grapples with the aftermath of conflict, custodians of literature unveil more than just books, with women emerging as conservators of libraries and chroniclers of pivotal moments. In a time of crisis, these subtle stories reveal the behind-the-scenes yet monumental efforts of restoration experts, guides, translators and archivists.

Shubigi Rao: These Petrified Paths is organized by the Rockbund Art Museum and curated by X Zhu-Nowell, Artistic Director, with Karen Wang, Curatorial Assistant.

Tan Jing: Inlet of Arid Dreams
Inlet of Arid Dreams is the first institutional solo exhibition of the artist Tan Jing, a native of Shenzhen, China, known for her experimentation with unconventional materials across sculpture, installation, and moving images. Her work explores multi-layered narratives between reality and fiction by combining elements of folklore, organic materials, and personal memoirs. For Inlet of Arid Dreams, Tan Jing presents major new works, including the video installation titled Nook of a Hazy Dream (2023) and the scented faric sculpture The Souvenir (2023), both commissioned by the Rockbund Art Museum.

Smell plays a distinctive role in Tan Jing's art because olfactory memories, unlike verbal recollections, cannot be easily rewritten. She incorporates these sensory memories tied to identity and locality into her sculptural works. Whether it's the pungent aroma recalling Southeast Asian cuisine wafting from green tiles or the fragrance of Thai talcum powder, a reminder of grandmothers, emanating from fabric flowers (Floor Tiles and Flowers, 2023), the interplay between smelling and seeing takes us on a journey from her ancestral Lingnan residence in search of Lap Hung, a character based on the artist’s grandfather, whose spirit returns to his imagined native place. Since 2019, Tan Jing has been visiting her relatives and the Chinese diaspora community in Bangkok, Thailand, recording the histories narrated by her elders. In this video work, disappearing memories converge in varying languages; they weave dialogues of the past, the future, and the present, constructing the narrative of the film. The interplay of light and shadow on glass screens creates windows that open to a dreamscape.

Tan Jing: Inlet of Arid Dreams is organized by the Rockbund Art Museum and curated by Xu Tiantian, Curatorial Manager.  

International Press
Sarah Greenberg, Evergreen Arts: sgreenberg@evergreen-arts.com or +44 (0)7866543242.
For HR images, contact ppanagopoulos@evergreen-arts.com

Chinese Press
Stella Wang, Communication Manager, stella.wang@rockbundartmuseum.org