Furen Dai

Statement

My practice is embedded in a conceptual attitude, with connections to my interest in the origins of language, categories and systems, and complicating long-held standards around race, aesthetics, and value. Humor has an important role in my way of working. I am usually choosing the materials and media that best articulate my thoughts. To me, the fundamental core of artwork is the idea—and subsequently the thinking process that develops out of the idea and at the same time conditions it. I see materials as the physical manifestation of an art language to express the idea. At the same time, I also like to think of the idea coming together through the handling of certain materials and working with them. Material, display, lighting, viewer, architecture, text all contribute to the idea. When I develop a project, each work of the project is in dialogue with the others, like enmeshed in a common matrix, and I consider the exhibition as the final form of that “matrix”.

In that sense, content and form condition each other. My current project around encyclopedic museum, revisits the census and encyclopedic museum history in the United States. I started by creating gouache painting and shooting 16mm film. The initial experiments lead me to creating 3D video and painting frescos. In the past, I also worked with ceramic, neon light sculptures, oil painting, artist book, silkscreen printing and performance.

My previous project, Language Producing Factory examines a language which was developed as a secret code among women in Hunan, China. Later, the language has lost its functionality, women who know the language have been pressured into performing their cultural activities as entertainment for menial wages. Through video performance, I raised questions toward the double-edge effect of cultural tourism.

GlogauAIR Project

The view of a ruined and abandoned museum showcases the site as it is when it lacks what most consider its value and purpose: the art housed inside. This focus on the “invisible object” infuse my project with an investigative focus on the aesthetics of the museum itself as they pertain to art history as a whole and the society it serves. The emptiness also brings attention to the museum’s invisible laborers. These individuals keep the museum in operation and play an essential role in the benefits all receive. Nevertheless, they were and continue to be removed from the equation during the financial crisis. The project brings to mind a dystopian future without encyclopedic museum, which raises awareness of the issues around museums in the twenty-first century.

CV Summary

PUBLIC ART COMMISSION

• 2020 A Mouse with Ears and Tail, Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston, USA
• 2019 How to Make it in the Art World, The Art Newspaper, Frieze Art Fair, New York, USA

EXHIBITION

• 2022 New England Triennial 2022
• 2021 Carry-On (The Eighth Series: Adventure), Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China
• 2021 Message Received, Boston Cyberarts, Boston
• 2021 Dream Boston, Northeastern University, Boston
• 2020 To Cast too Bold A Shadow, The 8th Floor, Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, USA
• 2020 Mother Tongue/Language, The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2020, New York, USA
• 2020 Poem from the Earth, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, USA
• 2020 HIGH FREQUENCY, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington DC, USA
• 2020 Force Majeure, Eli Klein Gallery, New York, USA
• 2020 Collection of Recollection, Yotsuya Unconfirmed Studio, Tokyo, Japan
• 2020 Global Knowledge, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Greece

RESIDENCY / WORKSHOP

• 2022/23 ZK/U Berlin – Center for Art and Urbanistics Residency, Berlin, Germany (forthcoming)
• 2022 GlogauAIR Residency, Berlin, Germany
• 2022 MacDowell Residency
• 2020 Recodings and Renewals, Knight Foundation Art + Research center, ICA Miami,
• 2020 NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, New York
• 2017-19 International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, New York
• 2017 Art OMI/ The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Fellowship Recipient
• SubSamson Residency at Samson Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

Gallery