Artists frame green issues
From research into the oldest irrigation system and its interaction with surrounding lives in Sichuan province, China, to watering the dried potted plants on the streets of Europe, three artists on the two continents have been exploring with distinctive approaches the issues of the ecological environment and its relations with human activities throughout history. Their commitment and skill have seen them win last year's Choi Foundation Contemporary Art Award, and their works are now on show at Ophiolite, an exhibition at Beijing's Choi Centre, running through to Sept 17.
It is an invitation to glimpse the work of Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, an artist pair who live in Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital. Their cooperation with people from different fields has rendered their work a cross-disciplinary method to examine the complications between the water system, for example Dujiangyan, the oldest irrigation system still in use, and realities of human life, by which they look for more possibilities of a future of coexistence between the material world and people.