Artist duo A.A Murakami is holding its solo exhibition at the Park View Gallery inside the Sea World Culture and Arts Center. The exhibition features 16 newly-created works which magically transform the gallery into a lab with blue, red and yellow rooms for dialogues between nature and technology, ontology and the future.

Established in 2011 by Japanese architect Azusa Murakami and British artist Alexander Groves, the duo straddles the spheres of art, design and cinema and its works explore themes of regional identity and the future of resources in the age of globalization.

“C-type House” is a design concept for future organic architecture. “C” stands for “cell” which can be used to describe the microscopic structures inside living organisms, and can also refer to a small room in a prison or monastery. Inspired by Japanese Metabolism architecture, the artists used recycled cardboard to create this prototype to present a futuristic modular architectural structure grown with mycelium (fibers from a fungus). By using mycelium, the artists present architecture more as a transient state where buildings are grown when the need arises and after they are no longer required, they can simply revert back into the earth to form new landscapes. This new organic building material and form are reminiscent of futuristic architecture models that were envisioned in utopian architecture in the 1970s.

“Mycelium Drawing” shows the mycelium grown on recycled cardboard, and the artists regard it as an important sustainable material for the future. As one of the oldest life forms on Earth, mycelium provides necessary nutrients for the ecosystem. Murakami believes that to meet the challenges of this century, with expanding human population and an ever-increasing pressure on the natural world, humanity needs to find a more symbiotic relationship between human population growth and the natural systems on which our existence depends.

The neon light installations “Mother” and “Pale Fire” are parts of the duo’s longtime “Ephemeral Tech” series. The neon gas in its plasma state in the glass tube is lit by an electric field. The fluctuating voltage creates a varying intensity of the plasma, thus exciting the ever-changing wonderful light in sealed tubes. A.A Murakami commented, “In ‘Ephemeral Tech,’ boundaries between digital technology and natural forces are dissolved to create unnatural phenomena using real materials that engage all our senses beyond the standard visual stimuli of flat screens, projections and LED arrays.”

“Fog Painting,” which simulates sunlight passing through the atmosphere and clouds with glass, fog and spectral filters, pays tribute to Transcendentalist landscape painters. It uses new technologies to continue the legacy of evoking the feeling of the sublime and the spirit of nature.

“Silent Passenger” is a rear-view mirror with a screen embedded, which invites viewers to watch images from the past and the present at the same time with a double vision, so as to convey the inexplicably multi-layered contemporary China, with a unique touch of science fiction.

Dates: Until April 18, 2021

Venue: Park View Gallery, Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Nanshan District (南山区海上世界文化艺术中心园景展厅)

Metro: Line 2 to Sea World Station (海上世界站), Exit A(SD News)