M HKA Ensembles

Installation, 3 x (230 x 280 x 210 cm).

Collection: Courtesy of the artist.

Merging multiple visual languages to form something graphically vibrant, the sculpture triptych The Documentary: Geocentric Puncture reflects broad changes in how our perception of physical materials and their ‘materiality’ has changed to something more simulated. The work combines sets of artefacts or totems, all displayed in front of large freestanding screens, each possessing a kind of snakeskin camouflage. The deliberate use of overly vivid camouflage occurs regularly in Guan’s works, drawing us closer to readings of surface. These artefacts, some notionally representing renowned historical artefacts – such as an Easter Island Moai statue or an Ancient Egyptian Ouroboros snake biting its own tail – are all positioned alongside camera tripods, signifying firstly our knowledge of them via secondary sources, as well as the boundless idiosyncratic ‘museums’ we can create ourselves from the various means at our disposal. (NH)