Cheng Ran

Extended Hours:

Sunday, June 2, 12pm to 5pm

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Project Space

In the UK premiere of Always I Distrust, multifaceted Hangzhou-based artist Cheng Ran brings his distinct ability to orchestrate profound environments to Gazelli Art House. Candidly immersive, this exhibition is composed of tripartite elements, VR, video, and sculpture, whose interrelating narratives explore inner-city seclusion.

Playing out in a fictional setting, Always I Distrust thrusts the viewer into a virtual reality (VR) whereby liquid spaces and interconnected portals are traversed in a nine-minute fantasy experience. As sequel to 2014’s Always I Trust, this 2020 work continues Cheng’s explorations into the emotional isolation of city life from a new perspective. The earlier work was inspired by a computer-generated spam email sent from an unknown woman to the artist, whereas Always I Distrust assumes the perspective of an abandoned hacked email account, auto-generating incomprehensible missives to hundreds of recipients.

Seemingly referencing an aftermath, the indiscriminate list of recipients reverberates across a cybernetic city network. The capricious emotional states of people in the current world are embodied by acclaimed actor, Carina Lau, who morphs between characters. Pandemic regulations dictated Lau and Ran collaborate remotely for Always I Distrust, an experience which Lau terms “new and special” hoping to “use modern technology, as well as my personal experience and feelings, to produce a work that resonates with the audience.”

With distance in mind, Always I Distrust appears to offer a meditative space, forgotten within the internet’s immensity. Ideas of introspection also surface in headsets, which riff on the wearable element of VR and offer a bridge between real and unreal through suggestively ritual action.

“If urban construction is done by thousands of unknown workers, then the construction of the information city should include these ‘virtual builders’. As rapid urban development brings unprecedented technological changes, the relationship between cities and people has evolved accordingly. This relationship now stands at a new crossroad, over a new horizon.”

—Cheng Ran

Always I Distrust is commissioned by K11 Art Foundation and Vive Arts, and presented in partnership with, Vive Arts, a global arts initiative that empowers artists to experiment with immersive technologies to create ground-breaking digital art.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Gazelli Art House to bring Cheng Ran’s Always I Distrust to London for the first time. At Vive Arts, we are passionate about championing artists who imaginatively engage with technology and Cheng Ran uses VR to create a personal, powerful reflection on the experience of living in an increasingly digital world. Gazelli Art House has long shared our commitment to support artists working in immersive mediums and we hope that their visitors will enjoy this captivating, experimental work.”

—Celina Yeh, Executive Director, Vive Arts

Cheng Ran is a cross-media artist from Inner Mongolia, China. He participated in the artist residency program at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in the Netherlands from 2013 to 2014 and later founded Martin Goya Business, an art space, in 2017. Ran works across film, poetry, drama, word, and installation, often challenging space, structure, and object conceptions by mixing materials. Ran’s works address the existential state of the Chinese youth in the face of political and cultural globalisation, often reflecting his deep thoughts on universal themes such as boundary, distinction, and confrontation. His works encourage the audience to contemplate the poetics of nihilism, allowing them to shift between reality and imagination.

Ran has showcased his works at many prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, among others. He has also exhibited at various biennials, including the 14th Istanbul Biennial and the 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial. Cheng Ran’s solo exhibitions have taken place at New Museum in New York, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, and the K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong. The Artist features in collections including The Walther Collection, Germany, The Royal Academy of Visual Arts, Netherlands, and Erlenmeyer Foundation, Switzerland, and has won numerous awards including the Nomura Emerging Artist Award, 2019 and the Pierre Huber Prize, 2015.