A New Immersive and Neon-Lit Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art Is Coming to the NGV

This Friday, May 3, the National Gallery of Victoria will reveal its next impressive exhibition, A Fairy Tale in Red Times. Showcasing large-scale and never-before-seen works from Sydney's White Rabbit Gallery's collection, the exhibition will explore questions of identity and personal and cultural memory.

Featuring 26 Chinese and Taiwanese artists from across two generations — the first post-Mao generation and a younger generation for whom the Cultural Revolution is ancient history — A Fairy Tale in Red is an examination of the dramatic generational change in Chinese society and culture, and its impact on contemporary art as well as, more generally, today's China.

Works include Shi Yong's A Bunch of Happy Fantasies (2009) installation of upside down neon-lit Chinese characters and the eponymous A Fairy Tale in Red Times (2003–07): a collection of vibrant, large-scale photographs by husband and wife duo Shao Yinong and Muchen.

Plus, pieces never exhibited before in Australia will be on display, including Zhu Jinshi's large scale immersive installation The Ship of Time (2018) made from 14,000 sheets of xuan paper, 1800 pieces of fine bamboo and 2000 cotton threads; and Mao Tongqiang's Order (2015), a stainless-steel installation shot repeatedly with bullets.

The Ship of Time (2018), Zhu Jinshi, courtesy of Tang Contemporary and the artist.

The exhibition is a collaboration between White Rabbit's founder Judith Neilson and the NGV — and it's the first time the NGV will dedicate and entire exhibition to works from the Sydney gallery.

Coinciding with White Rabbit Gallery's tenth anniversary and the release of a new NGV publication The Centre: On Art and Urbanism in China, the exhibition opens this week, and will run from May 3 until October 6. As a bonus, it's also free to enter.

A Fairy Tale in Red Times will show at NGV International from May 3–October 6, 2019. Entry is free. 

Top image: A Bunch of Happy Fantasies (2009), Shi Yong, courtesy of ShanghArt Gallery and the artist.