“Emerald Tablet” is named after the Tabula Smaragdina written by Hermes Trismegistus, which was found in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. The contents carved onto the tablet had a significant impact on Western occultism and alchemy. It was believed to contain the fundamental philosophy of the universe and the ultimate secrets of alchemy. Moving on from the occult philosophical ideology of ancient Medieval times, the artist expresses a more substantial interest in the contemporary nature of the tablet itself. After visiting several private electronic waste recycling workshops, Hu discovered a dangerous but mystical underground industry in which people extracted conduction gold from discarded circuit boards, chips, and other wasted electronic components. The millennia-old alchemy has reappeared on the green circuit “Tablets,” but this time, the spiritual revelation of Hermes Trismegistus has been transformed into a capitalist gold rush led by tech companies.
After the explosion of technology, AI emerged in a completely different guise from a mysterious alchemy. In his new creation, Hu will, for the first time, utilize the powerful image-producing abilities of AI to resurrect plants that have been extinct for centuries due to human activities. The artist will then restore these images using traditional clay sculpting methods while inviting children to interact and continuously destroy the sculpture through physical contact. The spontaneous actions of children will create a tug-of-war with the intelligent computational platform, allowing standardized representations of AI to revert to a cycle of natural life.
The gold refined from tons of electronic chips is compressed into gold foil, covering the sculptures' surface and transforming them into fascinating golden totems. The chips are advanced into AI technically but simultaneously descend to the physical labor of “gold diggers” on the social level. The artist's ultimate practice allows the spiritual form (AI graphics) and material (gold) to converge through different paths, which echoes the second and third lines from the 13 aphorisms of the Emerald Tablet:
That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to do ye miracles of one only thing.
And as all things have been and arose from one by ye mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The photographic installation "Dream Body" displayed in the center of the gallery explores the ancient alchemical notion of "All is One" from the perspective of "Othering." The artist selects and collages human bones from thousands of X-rays collected from hospitals and dissolves differences such as gender, race, and class in a skeletal form, while the plants growing on top convey a particular representation of interspecies imagination. Throughout the external intervention of plants, we are also "queered" into being the "other." Hu’s practice is not only stripping away the oppressive restrictions brought by binary identities but also abandoning the normative binary of "human identity vs. non-human identity” and simply returning to life-forms and forms of life.
The ancient philosophy of “All in One” shown on the Emerald Tablet conveys a perspective of viewing all elements as a unified whole that is particularly precious in the tumultuous Anthropocene. Especially when humans are responsible for climate change, should we stand in the shoes of endangered species as we all are integral parts of the ecosystem? When the artist immerses himself into the continuously normalized digital images, will he be able to develop a “Negativität” discourse through his physical body? Rediscovering the alchemy cosmology and adopting the balance between the inner self and the external world is what the exhibition seeks to convey.
Hu Weiyi was born in 1990 in Shanghai, China. He graduated from the China Academy of Art with a BA in Public Art in 2013, concluding his studies with an MA in Media. He lives and works in Shanghai. His work has been the subject of major museum solo shows including the Asian Art Center Taipei and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing. Further exhibitions have included the Yuz Museum, Power Station of Art, Long Museum, MoCA Shanghai, Guang Dong Times Museum, Minsheng Art Museum, CAFA Art Museum, Hong Kong Arts Centre. His work has been exhibited at international institutions including Helmhaus Zürich, White Rabbit Gallery Chippendale, and V2 Rotterdam. In 2014 Hu Weiyi won the 2nd Art Sanya Huayu Youth Award.
