Shen Shaomin: Experimental Studio
Frey Norris Gallery
San Francisco, CA
4 – 28 September 2008

By Tonya Warner

A member of a contemporary trend of project-oriented artists, Shen Shaomin focuses on a modification of nature – be it through hybrid skeletons or, as in the case of this show, living plants. Here Shen presents a series of Bonsai trees whose growth has been very forcibly modified through the use of heavy metal clamps, screens, wires, and armatures. Although these may seem a bit goth (somehow they remind me of H.R. Giger) or akin to Harry Potter’s Mandrake plants with their bulbous bases, their reference points are much less pop-cultural. The wires and armatures twisting and inhibiting these plants allude to a need for control and training that humans place on both the natural world and each other. The heaviness of these structures sweeps aside the curtain that obscures the process behind beauty and maintaining a sense of control. This also seems to reference an Asian appreciation of gnarled natural forms – a value which has caused, in turn, human modifications to make forms more “naturally” beautiful, such as in man-made Scholars’ Rocks.

The exhibition also includes a book of diagrams on plant grafting and the manipulation of nature. There are also examples of his other works, such as an eight-armed Buddha skeleton and a paddleboard where wooden oil pumps go up and down on a carved map of the world.

The most impressive element of the show is the sense of age – judging from the thickness of the bases, some of these trees must be quite old. These “living installations” become testaments not only to man’s need to control nature, but the process and time devoted to their creation on the part of the artist. The trees are both lovingly nurtured and cruelly stunted. Thus they serve as living metaphors for society (and perhaps government) at large.

http://www.freynorris.com/docs/Frey-Norris-Unknown-Creature-Bonsai-2008_event.htm