Hou Jianan Breaks the Illusion of Digital Pleasures in 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow'
On view DE SARTHE gallery in Hong Kong until January 25, 2025.
DE SARTHE in Hong Kong presents Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, a solo exhibition by Chongqing-based artist Hou Jianan. With keen graphic sensibilities, this showcase of new paintings delves into the illusory nature of fulfillment in a world wrought by digital gratification.
Hou takes interest in the ways in which hedonistic desires become amplified by our current technological moment, as material consumption becomes one with screen-based stimulation. With this in mind, the artist selectively inflates and flattens aspects of his acrylic compositions, weaving a feeling of artifice into his visual language.
Central to the exhibition are recurring domestic motifs – houses, candles, curtains and chairs – juxtaposed against lush greenery and flora. Sweet and seductive in their homey comfort, a closer examination reveals an intentional falseness, similar to the fleeting and hollow satisfaction of instant pleasures.
“An indirect reference to the 1998 film The Truman Show, the artworks also comprise of artificial skies in the background, not only illumining the boundary to this blissful trap, but bringing to the surface that all that is perceived is but an illusion – one that is here today but will be gone tomorrow,” the gallery wrote.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow is now on view until January 25, 2025.
DE SARTHE
26/F, M Place,
54 Wong Chuk Hang Rd,
Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong
