Misleading Trails: Enrique Chagoya, Xiaoze Xie, Hai Bo, Dan Mills, Hong Hao, Ai Weiwei, Vernon Fisher

Oct. 5 – Nov. 19, 2006

"Suffering from jet-lag one spring morning in 2003 around 4 a.m., Dan Mills and I were talking in a hotel in Beijing. We had come to China to curate the exhibition ‘Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US.’ Our discussion turned to the artists in the show and we soon discovered that there was no lack of paralleling or interconnected concepts and strategies between Chinese and American contemporary art. We then came up with the idea to organize an international traveling exhibition to develop communications and exchange among artists from both countries. Originally, we called the show ‘Obsolete Knowledge, False Systems, and Misleading Trails.’"    -Xiaoze Xie, from the catalogue essay.

"‘Misleading Trails’ in Multiple Perspectives"

"If an artist must offer an explanation about his existence, his physical and psychological state, this explanation is inevitably linked to the times he lives in, the politics, and ideology of his times. This explanation naturally reflects the artist's perspective of the world, which is represented by the artist's unique linguistic style. As an absolute fact existing in the world, this style of the artist has the same explicit characteristic and unequivocal nature as every other what we call ‘fact.’"

"However, being explicit in art can be ‘layered’ and ‘ambiguous.’ Different interpretations and implications often produce solid spiritual orientations. It's more like a finger that sticks out and points to a space that is impossible to make out or register, and a future where nothing happens but everything can also happen."   –Ai Weiwei, from the catalogue essay  "Spiritual Orientation and Possibility of Survival."

"In visually and intellectually compelling work that investigates history, art, cultural and personal experience, the ‘Misleading Trails’ artists create provocative art filled with layered images and information, leading the viewer away from their initial response, and down numerous trails full of unexpected meanings."   -Dan Mills, from the exhibition brief.

Ai Weiwei, Hai Bo and Hong Hao live in Beijing; Enrique Chagoya in San Francisco; Vernon Fisher in North Texas; Mills and Xie in Lewisburg, Pa. The latter work at Bucknell where Xie teaches painting in the department of art & art history, and Mills directs the Samek.

Organized by the artists, China Art Archives and Warehouse and Samek Art Gallery. It has exhibited at CAAW in Beijing in 2004 and has traveled throughout the U.S. since early 2005. This is the eighth and final venue.

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