Introduction

“Gazing Through Time: The Reconstruction of Hunan Culture and Tim Yip’s New Oriental Aesthetics”

This exhibition is jointly presented by the Hunan Museum, Oscar-winning visual artist Tim Yip, and Professor Li Jianmao from Hunan Normal University. Through an innovative “cinematic-scenario” approach, it juxtaposes over 160 precious historical artifacts that carry the genetic code of Hunan civilisation with more than 120 pieces of Tim Yip’s artworks, including film costumes and props that show the aesthetics of “New Orientalism” to construct a new realm that combines the natural elements of water, fire, and earth—a tunnel for exploring spirituality and the archetypes of “myth”.

“The classical world holds infinite poetic charm, carrying a spiritual inheritance that runs through all the exquisite and delicate worlds of art, becoming a immovable axis of the spirit that contains the secrets of time.” Mr. Tim Yip advocates “a collaboration of history and imagination to create a second language”. First, we need to grasp the essence of history, and then we can unleash creativity to enrich the resonance with both modernity and subconscious undercurrents. Each visual detail of the exhibition, from gods and goddesses to myths and divine creatures, has been examined in terms of aesthetics and cultural basis, and on the basis of reconstructed realism, a complete and believable world full of “mythical aestheticism” is constructed. Professor Li Jianmao, as a researcher of Hunan culture, interprets and presents artifacts from the perspective of archaeology in contemporary contexts. Here, the wisdom, emotions, and rhythms of ancient artifacts interwine and collide with contemporary art’s inquiries into the “primordial realm” and “spiritual DNA”.

We invite you to transcend time and space, to engage in a visual and philosophical dialogue about the nature of existence, the roots of culture, the vibrations of souls, and “romantic” mythological narratives, and to embark on an extraordinary journey of inward contemplation that touches upon the very secrets of time itself.