Natural Selection——XindiWang’s Solo Project
BONIAN SPACE, Beijing, China Tex:Gaoyumeng，29/10/2024
BONIAN SPACE will present artist Xindi WANG’s solo project Natural Selection from November 2nd to December 1st, 2024, featuring over ten recent works based on the forms of sea shells. Various shells are not only natural objects that the artist has been collecting since childhood but also carry her memories from different periods, becoming footnotes of time flowing through life. Through contemplating the traces of growth in both self and natural objects, Xindi’s practice intuitively navigates the cognitive boundaries between self-existence and the physical world. Her work progresses from contemplating life’s vessels to exploring the interplay between time-space and memory, and ultimately to examining individual self-construction—all culminating in an almost meditative ontological awareness that simultaneously draws near yet remains eternally distant.
In her recent works, Xindi’s creation reveals a path from exploring form and material to deeper painterly ontology. Her depiction of natural objects gradually transcends specific spatial and morphological constraints, establishing spatial extensibility through inherent, quasi-abstract geometric properties. Meanwhile, she maintains subtle figurative elements through meticulous observation and refined texture work, imbuing her forms with both tactile materiality and organic vitality.
The “Infinite Receptacle” series features dominant spiral circular structures, where threads radiate outward from a central point. The interplay between centripetal and centrifugal forces suggests the multiplicity of existence—simultaneously representing outward growth and inward reflection, material containment, and spiritual dwelling, while serving as a metaphor for life’s self-actualization.
In the “Duplicity” series, Xindi employs a “picture within a picture” compositional approach, juxtaposing object forms across various temporal and spatial dimensions. By incorporating shells that hold memories of loved ones alongside contemporary observations, she creates layers of temporal and memorial contemplation that, like growth rings, layer upon layer, interweave into a rich polyphony of personal development and temporal convergence.
Her latest works, The Architect and Natural Selection, delve deeper into how living beings make choices and construct themselves within their environment. The relationship between natural objects and their attachments reveals the dialectic of necessity and contingency in life’s choices: beneath the apparent mechanical adherence to survival instincts lies creative adaptation to circumstance; within seemingly predetermined life paths, individuals express their agency and self-awareness in nuanced ways.
For Xindi, “natural selection” transcends simple determinism, representing instead the delicate balance life achieves between necessity and chance. Her reverence for and curiosity about nature guide her sustained observation of its transcendental essence, allowing her to illustrate how living beings construct themselves amid the tension between instinct and consciousness, ultimately creating a visual allegory of existential wholeness.
伯年艺术空间已于2024年11月2日推出艺术家歆迪的个人项目“自然选择”，将持续至12月1日，呈现其近作中以海螺形态为创作基底的十余件作品。各式的螺壳不仅是艺术家自童年时期便开始收集的自然物，更承载着她不同时期的个人记忆，成为时间流逝着落于生命中的注脚。通过对自身与外物生长痕迹的观照，她的创作实践也直觉性地逡巡于自我存在与现实世界之间的认知边界：从对生命容器的凝视，到时空与记忆间意象的渗透，再到生命个体的自我构建，最终在无限接近又永恒疏离的漩涡中，指向近乎冥想般的本体觉知。
在近作中，歆迪的创作呈现出一条由物质形态探索逐渐深入至绘画本体论的思考路径：她对自然物的描绘逐渐抽离了具体的空间与形貌，通过其既有的、近乎抽象的自然几何属性构筑起画面空间的延展性，与此同时，又以致微的观察与细腻的纹理刻画保留具象的暗示，进而赋予形式以既具材质感又富有机性的律动。
“无尽的容器”系列以螺旋式的环形结构为主导，螺纹从中心向四周层层展开，向心的收束力与离心的动能指向着存在的多重性——既是向外扩张的生长，也是向内收敛的沉思；既是物质性的容器，也是精神性的栖居所，同时亦为生命自我实现的隐喻。
“双重性”系列则采用了“画中画”的构图策略，将物象在不同时空维度下的形态并置呈现。重拾承载昔日亲人记忆的螺壳，与当下观察的形象相渗透，时间与记忆的观照如同年轮般层层叠加、互文生长，编结成生命个体成长与岁月际会的复调。
在最新的《建筑师》和《自然选择》中，她进一步将视野聚焦于生命个体在外部环境中的选择与自我建构。自然物对附着物的结合揭示着生命选择背后必然与偶然的辩证：对生存本能机械性服从的表象下，暗含着对偶发事件的创造性回应；在看似宿命般的生命轨迹中，每个个体都在以微妙的方式诠释着自我觉察与能动。
或许对歆迪而言，“自然选择”并非简单的决定论，而是生命在必然与偶然交织中的共识与平衡。她怀有对自然的敬畏与好奇，在持续的凝视中接近其超验的本质，从而勾绘出生命个体在本能与觉知的拉扯中构建自我，最终实现存在完整性的视觉寓言。
歆迪个人项目“自然选择”，伯年艺术空间，撰文：高雨萌