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《实空》 Holding Time
Solo Exhibition - Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore (2023)
Artworks: Holding II, 《凝散》 Pressing into Cracks and Blooms II,  Laying Ground II
Curated by: Lu Xiaohui
Photo Credits: Xinwei Che
Installation view of 《实空》 Holding Time, Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, 2023.


This solo exhibition brings together Che's performance-installations, created from 2020-2023, through a living archive of photography, film, and material residue of ephemeral processes. Every surface conjures the liveness of materials undergoing states of change; layered stains reveal personal and material history, yet appear on the verge of seeping and spilling. This body of work reflects Che's desire to defy the capitalist commodification of time by excavating the deep geological time, cyclical ecological time, and expansive ritual time present in her materials. Che believes that as finite temporal beings, time is our most precious possession. Her art practice calls for us to notice the forces of change animating our material world.

Holding II
Mixed Media Installation
Materials: Traditional Chinese medicine, paper, beeswax
Large circular stains greet viewers as the enter the exhibition space. Each piece is an ephemera from Che's performance-installation, Holding I, in which she kept an unbroken chain of candle light alive across the duration of 40 hours. Layers of colour reveal the material process central to this performance: as each candle melted, Che applied a layer of pigment made from traditional Chinese medicine to the surrounding area, accumulating circles of colour and encrusted wax.

The wall of beeswax candles installed with deliberate gaps allude to the past performance duration of 40 hours, during which the missing candles have been lit. Each candle, handmade by Che through a slow process of dipping cotton cords in melted beeswax, resembles abstracted figures keep watch over the steady passage of time.

Read more about this series.
Xinwei Che, Holding II. Traditional Chinese medicine, paper, beeswax. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, 2023.
Xinwei Che, Holding II. Traditional Chinese medicine, paper, beeswax. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, 2023.
Xinwei Che, Holding II close up. Traditional Chinese medicine, paper, beeswax. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, 2023.


《凝散》 Pressing into Cracks and Blooms II
Mixed Media Installation
Materials: Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (traditional Chinese medicine, raw clay), raw clay
Evolving from Pressing into Cracks and Blooms I, a performance-installation created at Taipei Artist Village, Che reveals her personal meditations on loss, grief, and transformation through this photos series of empty clay bowls filling with traditional Chinese medicine. Bringing influences from her mother's TCM practice in her art practice, Che repeatedly performs this healing ritual that uses raw clay vessels as metaphor for the human body. These kaleidoscopic images capture Che's vessels in moments of change - seeping, sagging, spilling, rupturing - revealing time through attention.

Read more about this series.


Xinwei Che, 《凝散》 Pressing into Cracks and Blooms II. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper  (raw clay, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, water, rice paper), raw clay. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, 2023.
Xinwei Che, 《凝散》 Pressing into Cracks and Blooms II. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper  (raw clay, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, water, rice paper) . Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, 2023.
Xinwei Che, 《凝散》 Pressing Into Cracks and Blooms II #7. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, water, rice paper), 2023.
Xinwei Che, 《凝散》 Pressing Into Cracks and Blooms II #21. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, water, rice paper), 2023.
Xinwei Che, 《凝散》 Pressing Into Cracks and Blooms II #18. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, water, rice paper), 2023.
Xinwei Che, 《凝散》 Pressing Into Cracks and Blooms II #2. Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (raw clay, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, water, rice paper), 2023.

Laying Ground II
Dual Channel Video Duration: 75mins
 In this dual-channel iteration of Laying Ground, Xinwei Che invites reflection on maintenance, care and capitalist definitions of productivity by continually tending to a ground made from raw clay and ceramic tiles. Che’s field of clay repeatedly dries and cracks as she mends them. Cleaning bright white tiles grouted with terracotta clay becomes an impossible task as mineral oxides seep and stain upon contact with water. Che’s soundscape of washing, wiping, cracking, kneading and slapping echo through the exhibition, as she performs this cyclical labour. Actions that appear futile at a glance reveal the value of ritual and creative reconstruction in an impermanent and often unstable world. 

Interconnected Projects: Maintenance in Progress, durational performance (40 hours)
Xinwei Che. Laying Ground II, dual channel video, 75mins. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. 2023.
Xinwei Che. Laying Ground II, dual channel video, 75mins. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. 2023.
Xinwei Che. Laying Ground II, dual channel video, 75mins. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. 2023.


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Xinwei Che
xinwei.che@gmail.com
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