Initially taught embroidery by her grandmother, Gao Rong now safeguards native cross- stitching folk art techniques of Shaanxi Province. Discreetly weaving her life story and subtle illusions in how reality is but an interpretation of the relationship between object and time, her art commonly appear as an obsession to a singular moment: hyper-real home décor capturing an iconic time and place, and thus embedding a narrative to that moment. Mailbox (2011) is a beautiful example of Gao Rong: it is a perfect replica of her apartment’s letterbox, with distinctive but unique blemishes meticulously sewn. A flawless copy of her mother’s handwritten letter is encased in a slotted envelope; left undisturbed for 13 years. Thus, just like her labour the letterbox goes far beyond performing the function of an ‘act of service’: both are rather storytellers and Gao Rong leaves you, the viewer, to make the choice on whether to open that envelope.
In a further glimpse into her daily life in Beijing, After the Rain: Shipping Crate (2013) captures 21 st July, 2013, when the rain soaked and weathered a shipping crate and the artist was simply in the moment to bear witness. Similarly, Water Stain: The Bed (2014) captures the mould and spots on her bed sheet and pillow. Both works are narratives to the quiet determinism in the notion of transience, with organic time facing the rapid change in Beijing’s relentless growth and demolition.
Born in 1986 in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, Gao Rong graduated from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2010. Her 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.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 – Silent Threads, Redbase Art, Sydney, Australia
2023 – Sydney Contemporary 2023, Redbase Art, Sydney, Australia
2023 – I Am the Pople, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2022 – I Loved You, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2018 – The Unscene, Eli Klein Gallery, New York, USA
2016 – Half the Sky: Chinese Women Artists, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China
2013 – I Live in Beijing!, Eli Klein Gallery, New York, USA
2012 – Transformation: A View on Chinese Contemporary Art, Istanbul Modern Art Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
