Song Dong's Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence

"Mirrors, lights, and household furnishings converge on a grand scale in the luminous installations of Song Dong. The Chinese artist's interdisciplinary practice often combines performance, sculpture, painting, video, and calligraphy to summon memories and create monumental immersive experiences. Themes of transition and ephemerality often appear in Song's pieces, like a series of installations and performances in which tabletop constructions reminiscent of metropolitan skylines were constructed from edible treats, dismantled brick by brick-or biscuit by biscuit-as visitors passed by. Playful and saccharine on the surface, these works examine the artist's own childhood experiences of food scarcity along with themes of ephemerality and globalization."

""Waste Not" -which was shown initially at Beijing Tokyo Art Projects before being exhibited in major institutions in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Germany-explores related themes of consumption and impermanence. Incorporating more than 10,000 items his mother had accumulated over the course of five decades, the installation-performance became "an act of physical and psychological unpacking," says Pace Gallery, which represents the artist. Viewers were presented with "a veritable landscape of commodities, ranging from bottle caps, shoes, blankets, toothpaste tubes, metal pots, and toys.""

"Through the use of old wooden windows, bed frames, doors, mirrors, lamps, color-coated glass, porcelain, and other found objects and "daily necessities," Song composes elaborate, structural installations. These evoke dreamy notions of home, belonging, security, and migration while exploring the relationships between memory and fact, humor and trauma. He culls his materials from the streets of Beijing, sourcing discarded furniture, architectural elements, and quotidian objects."

Song Dong assembles mirrors, lights, furniture, and quotidian found objects into monumental, luminous installations that create immersive environments. He combines performance, sculpture, painting, video, and calligraphy to evoke memory and collective experience. Recurring themes include transition, ephemerality, consumption, globalization, migration, and childhood food scarcity. Some works use edible tabletop skylines dismantled by visitors to literalize impermanence. Waste Not incorporated over 10,000 items accumulated by his mother, functioning as an act of physical and psychological unpacking and a landscape of everyday commodities. Materials are sourced from Beijing streets and include windows, bed frames, doors, lamps, glass, porcelain, and household detritus.

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