SLEEP CENTER is delighted to present its own member, Rui Lin’s new project HOT SWEET TOFU.
A good piece of soft tofu is a perfect white block with sharp 90-degree angles.
At July 21st, 2015, I decided to turn an abandoned basement space (underneath a temple in New York’s Chinatown residential area ) into an art studio/exhibition space. Previously, the basement was burned twice, functioned as a dance/social club at one point (still known by our neighbors as “the Beijing Club”), a shelter for illegal immigrates, and a gambling joint. The following month and a half, alongside with my partner, Kerim Zapsu, we transformed the space, a little by little, into what you see now as SLEEP CENTER.
Look back at the process, I found no evidence of actual planning or standard guidelines that we’ve followed, while the goal is to build a standard platform/template for creative usage. In order to make that happen, I was possessed by a state of discipline. There was an urge, turning extreme self-control into momentum, as a result there comes self-hypnotize – I split myself into two, putting one side to sleep and another to build.
The forceful need of construct a template made me consciously compressed a part of my own consciousness. The reality – acceptance of trade off between cause and result is finally kicking in. At the eve before the burning light (as tale tells, either comes with A.I. or god with human image) washes over this land of sheep and zombies, after many clogged struggles, debates, disappointments, enlightenment, road trip, drugs, saints and Satan, we can have a grip to “how to” in general and ask less about the question “why me”? What is the relationship between our own conscious to the existed world (all the collective knowledge that is known, documented, and mapped out) and the unknown (it is not to be forgotten there is tomorrow)?
In this project that expands over half a month, Rui Lin will exhibit the transformation of the front gallery space of SLEEP CENTER as an time base performance installation. The installation will evolve everyday accompany by the “maker of template, soft discipline”.
Oct 30, 2015 – Nov 15, 2015
Noon – 6p, Wed – Sun
Oct 30, 2015 Friday, 7p-10p / Opening Reception
Nov 15, 2015 / Closing Reception
Rui Lin (B. Guangzhou,China) is an artist who currently lives and works in New York City.
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