“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water into a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water, my friend.”
— Bruce Lee
Seeking truth and ethical principles through the study of natural phenomena has been a fundamental methodology in traditional Chinese philosophy. Water, for example, has been referenced so often by leading Chinese scholars that its compelling qualities—being formless yet mighty—are deeply, almost mechanically, embedded in the mind of every Chinese person.
Yet how can we reframe such values in contemporary conditions, both conceptually and aesthetically? And is there a real need to do so? Every Chinese artist engaged in contemporary art practice may have raised such questions. The exhibition Be Water, My Friend thus invites ten Chinese artists to re-evaluate this intellectual heritage while also examining its role in a contemporary context.
Due to the sudden circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, our originally planned exhibition, which was to take place at the Dyson Gallery at the Royal College of Art, can now only seek alternative modes of presentation. Like many others, we have decided to bring this exhibition online, but we do not wish to see this as a compromise imposed by force majeure. Instead, we actively explore the diversity of online exhibitions and challenge the new plasticity of this format.
Grapevine is an online residency platform that has already shown us further possibilities in this regard, providing discussion panels for participating artists through multimedia forms such as audio, video, images, and text. Like water, we have adapted this exhibition to the conventions of Grapevine. In addition to presenting works ranging from painting to ceramics, and from video to text, we also invite the participating artists to further explore the topic through an online discussion, by submitting a collection of multimedia sources that they believe paraphrase their works and the theme of this exhibition.
So be it, my friends. At the point where the river ends, why don’t we simply sit down and look at the rising clouds? Let us see, then, where we are heading.