film shoots. He directs the viewer's gaze to certain places where he often stages something or adds a computer drawing to his photographs that emphasises the contours.

In the early video work "Rearward" (2014), which is today part of the BMCA collection, he films the construction site of Tianmulin, an important cultural district for the cultural scene in Hangzhou, and modifies the construction site noise in footage material as if it were the sounds of tanks and war guns. The workers in their hard hats suddenly become confusingly similar to soldiers - or has the artist used statemen dressed as soldiers? The result is a veritable deception of the audience, as one actually no longer knows whether it is a war scene or an ordinary construction site.

Zhang Wuyun "beautifies" the surrounding landscape and creates a statement through his interpretation that is not necessarily typical of the painting tradition in Hangzhou. The painter, who comes from northeastern China, graduated from the Lumei Academy's painting class and shows an interesting style in his works, which can be classified neither in the northern tradition nor in the south. Everyday situations are important to him: the ordinary, from which he can extract something very special in each of his paintings. Above all, his painting radiates a very special calm - the feeling of extended time, in which every moment is enough for detailed reflection.

What both artists have in common is a certain romanticising undertone in which they encounter their environment. A certain melancholic attitude can also be observed, in which they come close to the music of Tom Waits..

Two, one, two, three, four

Well I stumbled in the darkness

I'm lost and alone

Though I said I'd go before us

And show the way back home

Is there a light up ahead?

I can't hold on very long

Forgive me pretty baby but I always take the long way home

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Wandering around enables a different view than when one observes attentively. It is precisely this "semi-waking state" and the possible deception of not quite recognising contours in the dark that circumscribe the works in this exhibition. "The Long Way Home" by Tom Waits (written in 2002 by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan) puts the viewer in exactly the right state of mind for this.  

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Money's just something you throw

Off the back of a train

Got a handful of lightening

A hatful of rain

And I know that I said

I'd never do it again

And I love you pretty baby but I always take the long way home

I put food on the table

And a roof overhead

But I'd trade it all tomorrow

For the highway instead

Watch your back if I should tell you

Loves the only thing I've ever known

One thing for sure pretty baby I always take the long way home

You know I love you baby

More than the whole wide world

You are my woman

I know you are my pearl

Let's go out past the party lights

We can finally be alone

Come with me and we can take the long way home

Come with me, together we can take the long way home

Come with me, together we can take the long way home

Zhang Wuyun's medium is painting. There have been exhibitions in which he has staged his paintings with parts of urban nature; exciting, but mostly kept confidential, are his charcoal drawings.

In Yi Lian's work, there is a broad spectrum of media in which he has formulated his language over the past years: He became known for his videos, which were also shown at numerous festivals (such as most recently in April 2023 at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen), Photography expanded into an object appears in his work just as regularly as drawings serving to a concept. In addition, there is a series of glass and porcelain objects that he has processed with silkscreen printing.

"The Long Way Home" at Loft 8 Gallery is intended to arouse curiosity and bring two more Chinese artist positions to the fore in Austria. Thank you for your perception!

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Installation Views