the lasting is dissolving
The lasting divinity is dissolving. The body of the god statue is usually the material bearer of the beliefs of the worshipper. In the contemporary context of faith, the statue is not an eternal covenant- they are abandoned by the will changing. However, the abandoned statues are not discarded or destroyed, for the ghost fear of offending the unseen gods, due to the established notion of reverence for the gods. The statues are therefore stored in the attic of the temple. This complex relationship between utilitarianism in the treatment of the statues and reverence for the gods reveals the interplay between modernity and tradition: the statues are easily replaced, but the ghosts remain.
In my project, the bodies of the statues act as ritual agents, creating a material metamorphosis as they are about to leave: they will be immersed in a sink, river or sea, they slowly melt and permeate inside the material cycle. It is contemporary and reverses the solidity and continuity of the statues, and the rituals take over the respectful and meaningful.
Qiaochu Guo is a hesitant creature and distracted artist based in the Netherlands, and occasionally appears in China. Their work has a questioning attitude towards established systems and conventional structures, such as hierarchies on ideology, race, labour, and how they influence the body on disciplining and modification. Their works include various media, installations, videos, images and performances. Qiaochu has shown works and presented at Van Abbe Museum, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Framer Framed, Kunstloc and others, and performed at Flam #9, Worm, De Singel and Veem.
