Referencing the traditionally feminine craft of folk embroidery, Gao Rong’s early works used needle and thread to transform domestic items into hyper-realistic visual language installations.
In contrast, the current new collection “Skin” is generated from leftover/surplus light-textile materials, which are enjoined by winding individual elements repeatedly, forming a new visual image of leather-like shapes. In the creation of this series, a sense of infinite extensibility has the works unfolding without limit, transcending the structural constraints and boundary zones of work. Gao Rong begins with the production of a single entangled fabric in three-dimensional space, eliminating any control over the specific shapes, colours, lines, volumes, and spaces of the work; and by freeing her practice to grow and sprawl the organization of the material constitutes the work itself, blurring the boundaries between textile crafts, handicrafts, sculpture and painting.
Gao Rong graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and her graduation creations and several works were collected by the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, and then subject to multiple exhibitions. Her large-scale creations have participated in the 18th Biennale of Sydney and the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, and have been exhibited in the Istanbul Modern Art Museum, the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, and in numerous galleries in China and New York.
