WU DING
ON THE HISTORY OF CIRCLE
CURATED BY SHI HANTAO
From “Real dimensions” to “Restricted rhythm”, almost all of Wu Ding’s exhibitions over the past six or seven years have tackled a range of philosophical concepts in an effort to provoke discussion. The artist has worked to ensure these discussions stay at an abstract and pure level.
Using abstract visual elements to deduce philosophical or spiritual topics has already received far-reaching experimentation from Kandinsky, while Mino White and Aaron Siskind represent the abstract photographic field. In Shanghai, there is a group committed to abstract photography. Wu Ding however does not restrict himself to two dimensional images that illustrate or spark creation. He takes on a variety of media, including visual and spatial production, and also uses text to propose larger philosophical themes. In the exhibition, the works complement, dialogue, and even contradict each other in the form of an open discussion with an internal logic. At the same time he hopes these discussions can lead to some sort of ultimate order, the overlap of religion, philosophy and science. This act is itself meaningful today: In an already diversified and utilitarian world, can we ever expect to create some sort of eternal or absolute order?
Wu Ding, Saturation of continuous cycles No.2, 2019, 100 x 80cm, photograph. Courtesy of the artist.
Wu Ding, Infinitely approach to an origin point No.3, 2019, 60 x 40 cm, photograph. Courtesy of the artist.