Artists explore the human-nature contract

The sound of objects being broken at an art exhibition would normally cause an immediate disturbance and may, these days, become a viral scene on social networks.

This exact scene became a reality at an ongoing exhibition at the Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing. However, it was not done to create outrage in public, but was encouraged — artist Yin Yunya invited the audience to crush her works on display in Shelter, a rectangular installation on display in which a large number of shells lie on the ground.

Yin says the installation communicates her interest in the shell as a form of natural shelter. She says that by inviting people to feel shells smashing at their feet and hear their crunching sounds, she hopes to inspire discussions about "the importance and, meanwhile, the fragility, of a protective mechanism, even those as small as the lives living inside a shell".

Sense of Happiness, another of Yin's works in the exhibition, is a group of portraits painted on the interior of shells. She also hints at the shell as being a metaphor for a sense of security.

Yin is one of the featured artists in The Natural Contract: Technology, Media, Human, Nature exhibition being held through to next Tuesday at the Tsinghua University Art Museum.

The exhibition borrows its title from the namesake book The Natural Contract, penned by the late French philosopher Michel Serres (1930-2019). It meditates on the evolving relationship between man and nature in the face of increasing ecological challenges and the intensified integration of artificial intelligence in human activities.

The exhibition's curator, Wei Ying, says: "The works of seven artists at the exhibition, who present diverse cultural and social contexts, probe into redefining the relationships among man, nature, and technology."

Since the late 1980s, Liang Shaoji, one of the featured artists on show, has been raising silkworms and introducing them into his artistic creations. His works strike people with their unanticipated variations in forms of silk and its inherent beauty, ushering his audience into a state of philosophical reflections.

For example, his piece Can Chanchan/Nature Series No 190 looks, from afar, like a classic Chinese landscape painting done with ink and depicting changing seasons. The texture of the work, after a closer look, reveals a long, delicate piece of silk cascading from the ceiling to the ground.

Behind the magnificent piece is Liang's long-term creative approach, which not only honors the vigor of silkworms but also nature's miraculous power and the influence of human activities.

Also a featured artist in the exhibition, Cao Shu says the display exposes the "bugs (problems)" of the world and provides no answers. His video work, Phantom Sugar, revolves around the routine patrols of a drone in a future world in which humans no longer exist, and algorithms control the management of plant growing; one day, the drone spots an ant and recollects the memories of the past in which it worked for a human.

Lu Xiaobo, director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum, says: "Hopefully, the exhibition will bring people novel experiences in nature, vitality for all lives, and the creativity of humans by opening up dialogue about art and technology, and the coexistence of tradition and modernization."