As the cycles of the heavens turn and the stars drift across the firmament, humanity has long sought to map the infinite constellations, weaving mythologies to anchor its existence within the cosmos. But, from the celestial vantage point, has the human endeavor ever truly registered? The presentation at Nan Ke Gallery during the Taipei Contemporary Art Fair in May is artist Zhou Meng’s profound meditation on this very inquiry.
Dominating the center of the booth was a comprehensive mural, Star Chart, which, like a mystical portal, opened a gateway to a celestial map within the confines of modern architecture. The expansive mural, evoking the primordial atmosphere of ancient cave paintings, was imbued with a sense of timelessness, as if it were a relic left by early humans in their quest to decipher the stars. Embedded within the mural were eighty-eight meteorite fragments, representing the constellations, using material that originated from the very cosmos they depict, thus completing the narrative both logically and aesthetically.
A recurring theme in Zhou Meng’s work is a deep-seated humility towards nature. This year, his exploration extends further, traversing multidimensional coordinates—ranging from the primordial wilderness to conceptual futures. Zhou navigates through “time,” spanning from the slumbering earth of fossils to the starry expanses of the galaxy, like a bard who collects, expresses, and sings the tales of existence.
The Fading Lore series on paper illustrates the lingering shadows of forgotten deities, their forms evoked through traditional Chinese ink techniques, capturing the transient guardianship and overarching dominion that pervade all. These divine figures, repeated like ancient symbols, ascend to a grand metaphor that transcends time and space, reigning over humanity across epochs and cultures.
The relationship between humanity and nature, long depicted in traditional Chinese cosmology through the dynamic interplay of yin and yang, here calls for a renewed awareness of human insignificance, urging a posture of humility before the natural world. As Daoist philosophy teaches, “Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs.” The gods of nature, devoid of conventional compassion, exist as a force to which humanity can only respond with reverence.
Following the Taipei fair, Nan Ke Gallery continued to showcase Zhou Meng’s evolving thought process at Tokyo Gendai in July, where his focus expanded from the divine and natural realms to a keen interest in anthropology. Here, human behavior became a fascinating subject of observation and analysis.
At the center of the exhibit stood the large-scale sculpture Mount Top, hinting at the origin of time and initiating a dialogue with nature. The mythical “Buzhou Mountain” from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, symbolizing the boundary between the divine and the mortal, intersected with the Western narrative of the Tower of Babel, creating a transcultural resonance. Beneath this sculpture, the mural transitioned into another dimension, opening a gateway to the heavens on the floor, blurring the physical limits of space and immersing the viewer in a transcendental experience. Time and space fold into one another, conveying an ancient call of naturalism while simultaneously fostering a deep, timeless empathy beyond the confines of reality.
Connecting to the continuum of human history, Zhou Meng’s Hero Game series juxtaposes prehistoric weapons with the modern game of “rock, paper, scissors,” offering a satirical commentary on warfare. The grandiosity and peril of war are reductively portrayed as mere human play, reinstating humanity’s humble place within the natural order. The absurdity of modern warfare, fueled by power struggles, is likened to the frivolity of entertainment culture.
This anthropological exploration will continue in Zhou Meng’s upcoming solo exhibition,II Trovatore (The Troubadour), opening on September 13 in Munich, Germany, co-presented by the Blue Mountain Contemporary Art Foundation and Nan Ke Gallery. Here, Zhou refines his macro-philosophical inquiries into a narrative realm, using the troubadour as a central figure to weave together a global story. The exhibition simulates the structure of a poem, with natural spaces divided into chapters, allowing artworks, the artist, and the viewers to traverse and resonate with the unfolding saga.
Incorporating diverse materials imbues the exhibition with an innate sense of collection and exploration. Zhou Meng integrates his cherished artifacts, such as Madagascar raffia and ancient ceramic statues, into the narrative. Nature’s creations envelop human artifacts, re-nurturing them as fruits that connect disparate civilizations and propel them towards an unknown horizon.
Seeds from different eras and regions converge here, growing into the river of life that envelops varied lands, linking human civilizations and their stories. As time flows, lives faded and become stones, passing through eons and transfering into shells on the shore. These shells, repurposed as currency in a new cultural context, embark on another cycle of circulation and rebirth. All things in the universe engage in this alternation and cycle, with the troubadour as the romantic thread tying together the complete narrative.
This October, Zhou Meng’s creative journey will once again take him to Taipei for a group exhibition presented by YIYUN ART at ART TAIPEI (Booth E04). In a migration full of possibilities and imaginations, the bard continuously collects the time fragments of the land, sings them, and then progresses and echoes them in the space.
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
In Earth’s upper atmosphere, a fast-moving band of air called the jet stream blows with winds of more than 442kph, but they are not the strongest in our solar system. The comparable high-altitude winds on Neptune reach about 2,000kph. However, those are a mere breeze compared with the jet stream on a planet called WASP-127b. Astronomers have detected winds howling at about 33,000kph on the large gaseous planet in our Milky Way galaxy approximately 520 light-years from Earth in a tight orbit around a star similar to our sun. The supersonic jet-stream winds circling WASP-127b at its equator are the fastest of their kind
RSS