) (,
2019
Brass, bronze, silk
73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
( ),
2019
Brass, bronze, silk
73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
II, 2019
Brass, bronze, silk, acrylic on canvas
11.5 x 12 in (29.2 x 30.5 cm)
回, 2019
Bronze, silk, acrylic and colored pencil on canvas
13 x 5 in (33 x 12.7 cm)
几, 2019
Bronze, acrylic yarn, ballpoint pen on canvas
10.5 x 5.5 in (26.7 x 14 cm)
Untitled (re: Alfred Kubin), 2019
Bronze, poly confetti yarn, ballpoint pen and colored pencil on canvas
10.25 x 5 in (26 x 12.7 cm)
If there is human-made intelligence, what does it take to create a spirit or a soul?
Do I start by crafting a body?
How to give body to an obscure idea or a myth?
It seems like we always have to work with what we have, by extracting and deconstructing existing forms, we create a body by reassembling.
What if the soft tenuous silk adopted a different body?
Can silk be sculpted as flesh?
Can wire and rods be molded into bones?
And does merging “flesh” and “bone” make a hosting body for a spirit, a soul, a feeling, or a notion? What difference does it make to generate a body rather than producing one?
Is the body receptive or interactive?
What’s the consistency of a soul, is it sticky? Smooth? Or watery?
If a spirit finds its body, does it take the shape of its vessel?
Or the other way around?
If a spirit is restless, does the body it resides in enters a state of dormancy?
Or the other way around?
Is dreaming a process of alien notions finding a host?
A notion takes form into a mythical creature.
As the light dies, a mayfly emerges.
Its entire life bursts.
In a flash.
Dreams creep into my body at night and leave by dawn.
—C.G.
Covey Gong (b.1994, Hunan, China) received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently lives and works in New York. Recent exhibitions include Salt Projects, Beijing (solo); Museum Gallery, Brooklyn; Mother Culture, Los Angeles; And Now, Dallas; Giovanni’s, Queens; and 48/19 Liebhartgasse, Vienna.
Edited by Viola Angiolini