The solo exhibition of Wiebke Siem brings together nearly one hundred works across such mediums as sculpture, installation, and paper, spanning various phases of the artist’s multi-decade career.
With sculpture at the core of her practice, Wiebke Siem extracts everyday objects from their original contexts while warping their form and meaning. Since the 1980s, she has been using fashion as a point of entry, transforming clothing into unwearable sculptures. Hand-sewn dresses, coats, and hats hang suspended without wearers, becoming the outer garments of cultural gender constructs. She has also been reconstructing traditional 18th and 19th century furniture from the German countryside, painstakingly restoring their structure and details while intentionally diminishing their practical function, stripping them from reality to become fixed cultural heirlooms imbued with the collective memory of modern Germany’s national narrative.
Siem’s focus is not limited to objects themselves but is directed at the symbiotic relationships between objects and people. In her meticulously-designed home scenes, life has been quietly dismantled and reconstituted, with objects and bodies permeating each other. The furniture grows limbs, while the kitchen implements and home spaces are silent and static as a stage backdrop, implying regimented rehearsal. The “figures” within are silent, unbalanced, dislocated, but lifelike, awakening the viewer’s alertness and isolation from once familiar surroundings, thus transforming everyday life into a field revealing the structures of power. In this way, the artist emphasizes that the body is a tool shaped by cultural systems, revealing the reality that everyday labors and gender divisions have long been shaped and maintained by social order.
This exhibition is organized by Damien Zhang, Director of the Aranya Art Center, in collaboration with Assistant Curator Gao Liangjiao, and Exhibition Coordinator Zhao Da.
Ding Yi
Three Flags
2023
Flag, air blower
Dimensions variable
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Chen Ruofan
Botanical Bank: 54 Objects Transplanted
2023
Stainless steel, LED, video
400 × 400 × 400 cm
55:92 min.
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Tom Friedman
Hazmat Love
2017
Stainless steel
150.5 × 118.1 × 107.3 cm
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong,
Seoul, London and aranya plein air art project
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self Portrait
1981
Silver gelatin print
58.5 × 61 × 3.2 cm (framed)
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
Richard Long
Four Ways
2014
Delabole Slate from Cornwall
490 × 498 × 58 cm
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi© Richard Long
Courtesy of Lisson Gallery and aranya plein air art project
Prinz Gholam
Stone Faces (Jin Shan Ling)
2023
Stone
Dimensions variable
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
David Zink Yi
Washingtonia
2017
Stainless steel
520 × 100 × 100 cm each
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of the artist, KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin / Seoul
and aranya plein air art project
Haegue Yang
Migratory DMZ Birds on Asymmetric Lens - Duiitt Duiitt Vessel (Gray-Backed Thrush)
2020
Soapstone, 3D printed resin
158 × 89 × 147 cm
Installation view, aranya plein art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
and aranya plein air art project
Charles Ray
School Play
2014
Painted fiberglass
193 × 58 × 39 cm
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
© Charles Ray
Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery and aranya plein air art project
Alina Chaiderov
Phoenix
2023
Stainless steel, cable protection tube
512 × 300 × 100 cm
Produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Liang Shuo
Little House
2023
Mosaic tiles
Dimensions variable
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Vivian Suter
Untitled
Undated
Mixed media on canvas
Dimensions variable
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery
and aranya plein air art project
Christine Sun Kim
A Permanent Tourist In A Foreign Language
2023
Inkjet printing on stainless-steel sign post
225 × 150 cm × 7 parts
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Sylvie Fleury
Giant Mushroom
2008
Fiberglass, metallic car paint
260 × 250 × 250 cm
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of the artist, Almine Rech
and aranya plein air art project
Nabuqi
We
2023
3D printing resin, paint
235 × 146 × 75 cm
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun ShiCourtesy of aranya plein air art project
Katinka Bock
Parasite Fountain
2019
Bronze, transparent PVC tube, water pump
Fish: 85 cm
Column: 300 × 30 cm
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Michelle Wang Yiyi
Red Berries
2023
Hawthorn berry, aluminum wire
Dimensions variable
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Zaiye Studio
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Chen Xiaoyi
Invisible Liquid
2023
UV print on aluminum plate
Dimensions variable
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Tony Cragg
Accurate Figure
2011
Carrara Marble
206 × 83 × 91 cm
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Isabelle Cornaro
Untitled (column #2 & column #3)
2014
Steel structure with black resin castings
66 × 274 × 66 cm each
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
Su Chang
Intersect
2023
Plaster, aluminate, hemp and other mixed materials
Dimensions variable
Commissioned and produced by aranya plein air art project 2023
Installation view, aranya plein air art project
July 7th to October 29th, 2023
Photography Sun Shi
Courtesy of aranya plein air art project
