The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar
Academy Art Museum，Easton，MD.
Dec. 5th, 2015 – Mar. 6th, 2016 Easton, 106 South Street
Press Release
In September 2015, university students across the globe submitted their work for the opportunity to be selected for exhibition alongside works by Robert Rauschenberg and a group of mid-career artists in The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar. These young artists explored and interpreted the ubiquitous presence of technology and the role it plays in cultivating cultural awareness and personal perspectives. At the same time, they examined how technology can bring humanity and social conscience to the forefront; how technology and art can act as a recording device and a visual manifestation of an individual view on the world; and how art can challenge the normative ways in which society sees the world. In a variety of mediums, these young artists strive to bridge the gap between the past and present, while carrying Rauschenberg’s legacy into the future.
Peng Ci (Staged Crash), 2015 Color digital video with sound 4 min., 5 sec:0:0
Courtesy of the artist
"The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar" at Academy Art Museum, Easton
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Wu observes the micro-alienation of Chinese society and the wealth of individual experiences, ranging from contemporary Chinese culture to social events and political power systems. In Peng Ci (Staged Crash), Wu examines a culture under constant surveillance, a carefully orchestrated judicial system, and the contradictory flow of capitalist American dollars into the communist Chinese economy. The neon lights reflect a surveillance heat map, while the watchful eyes of aliens represent the outside world looking in on the Chinese social, political, and economic system. Through visual examination of daily events in Chinese culture, such as traffic police directing vehicles and masses of people congregating, Wu uses digital animation technology to dismantle and reconstruct mundane absurdist reality.
