Gillman Barracks – Exhibit Review

Xue Mu

– Liquid Truth –

Liquid Truth questions the reliance on interpretation of existing knowledge, and so Mu’s work creates a perceptual distance from the original and its associations, deconstructing subjectivity in the process of understanding. The distance from an original evokes an awareness of the fixedly familiar ways in which our lives seem to be organised. A departure from an understanding based on reference to established knowledge thus gives birth to new ways of thinking and perceiving in Mu’s current iteration of Liquid Truth.

-Yeo Workshop

I was intrigued and fascinated by Xue Mu’s sculptures especially with her innovative yet twisted (literally and physically) use of Michelangelo’s David.

By twisting something so familiar and exquisite into an object of confusion and mystery, Mu’s silk curtains is an interesting concept whereby she plays with one’s mind. Hence it  is is twisted. I like it because it forces you to decipher the message and once the message is revealed, there is sort of an catharsis. I had a revelation when the silk curtain was pulled open because it made me realise that not everything is at face value and be patient with the truth.

This piece also caught my eye as even though it was distorted, you could still see the figures clearly and your mind can still knows what it is. I really liked this illusion because it was so simple yet it has a depth to it whereby it does show her thinking process of her crushed pieces of works. Also, a crushed piece of paper is trash to most of us but somehow this is atheistically pleasing.

Overall, I did enjoy and learn a few things along the way at Gillman Barracks but the exhibit/gallery that I really enjoyed was Xue Mu’s because it twisted something we all knew into a new pattern or design which I did not think was possible.