In addition to their piece “Can’t Help Myself” (2016), the Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu participate in the 2019 Venice Art Biennale with another kinetic artwork called “Dear” (2015). It consists of a white silicon chair in a large plexiglass box, fit with a rubber hose that violently whips around.

Info text: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s installations often involve the staging of visceral, intimidating spectacles; the act of looking on the part of the audience is a constitutive element of their recent works. the object is loosely based on the imperial roman chair featured as a component of the statue in the Lincoln memorial in Washington, D.C., while the chair is kept company by a rubber hose that violently whips around the surrounding space. in between these periodic eruptions of violence, the chair sits inert again, almost invitingly serene – until the assault recommences.

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Dear. 58th International Art Exhibition, “May You Live In Interesting Times”, La Biennale di Venezia, Arsenale. May 10, 2019.

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