Ma Qiusha solo exhibition at Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, 18 January – 2 March 2013
Whilst in Manchester yesterday, I popped into the Chinese Arts Centre to see the new show by Ma Qiusha.
Born in the ’80s, Ma Qiusha is an up-and-coming artist living in Beijing. For her first UK solo exhibition with Chinese Arts Centre, she will be showcasing her key works to date. Ma Qiusha’s work reflects a special sensitivity with ordinary everyday objects and materials. Carefully, she re-stages them in an unfamiliar environment to tell a story or express suppressed emotions. Mainly working with video and painting, at first glance her work is calm and expressionless. Only if you spend a certain amount of time with the works, will the underlying story and emotion reveal itself.
http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/whats-on/exhibitions/ma_qiusha/
In Two Years Younger Than Me (2011) her grandfather’s collection of beard clippings in medicine bottles are positioned on a small shelf in the entrance to the gallery along with a vinyl text piece No.43 Pingshadao (2012) telling the story of Two Years Younger Than Me. The text does not explain why the artist’s grandfather has this peculiar habit. Each small bottle is labelled with the year and chronological ordered. The short shavings are peppered black and white and seem to grow slightly lighter as the years go by. These found objects of collected waste material are united to the common theme of the exhibition of (razor) blades and form part of the artist’s autobiographical tracing of her family life through her work.
