2020 is a year full of challenges and dreadfulness. It is undeniable that COVID-19 has caused enormous impacts on our life in lots of aspects. How people will live in the future is a proposition that has been repeatedly discussed in religion, philosophy, and art for thousands of years. Sensing people’s strong desire to live, artist Wang Tong created “The God of Safe Trip Wherever You Go” and brought it to Night Flight, a group exhibition curated by Yizhe Huang, featuring artists Tong Wang, Feizi Wu and Xianglong Li.
Night Flight was held at RSOAA’s The Royal in Williamsburg. The exhibition features the homesickness of the overseas Chinese community, providing an alternative for the audience to experience various narratives through the connection of art. Due to the influence of the global pandemic and political tension between the U.S and China, many international students are not able to reunite with their families in China this summer like they used to. A strong desire to live has been witnessed among the overseas Chinese community.
According to Tong Wang, the idea of “The God of Safe Trip Wherever You Go” comes from Chinese street advertisements, infinite copies, and stacked forms, which present a huge visual impact and manifest the fantasy of real-life forms and gods. Tong is inspired by the Chinese god of doors, a painting attached to the door during the Chinese Lunar New Year to ward off evil spirits, protect the house, keep the peace, and stay healthy. She transformed original Chinese religious images into fantasy forms with different textures. In this way, the initial religious appearances remained while showing another kind of virtual space.
This masterpiece is one of Tong Wang’s works in “The God of Internet Series” that presents people’s excessive reliance on the Internet. “On the one hand, the Internet can make all kinds of knowledge and information easily accessible, which brings a lot of convenience to life,” Tong explained, “However, the Internet also affects people’s cognitive ability, as our brain receives and processes a large amount of information for a long time, which makes our judgment and ability to think decline continuously.”
Tong’s creation is blended with religion, life, death, mystery, and science concepts. She aims to express the aspiration for a better life and call on people to cherish life.
