FLUCTUATION FROM DISORDER TO ORDER
Siliang Ma (China)
Taking a photo is a paradoxical activity as it proves and disproves the experience of being simultaneous. On the one hand, it visualizes a clue of being. On the other hand, the reality is manipulated within the two-dimensional surface through the intervention of control. In this representational reality, objects are deducted to symbols, seeing is restricted under composition, and finally, chaos is tamed to order. It is not the production of knowledge about things, but that it creates new things-in-themselves. The exhibited series of works were created in the past three years; the subjects covered politics, identity, and technology. The methodology which was adopted to operate these projects is to question the foundation of the causality between phenomena and interpretation within the medium.
The title “Fluctuation from Disorder to Order”, according to Siliang Ma, is a phrase inspired by physics: “In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation is the temporary random change in the amount of energy in a point in space. It implies that the basic structure of matter (order) comes from uncertainty (disorder/chaos). I think this is very similar to the mechanism of how ‘meaning’ emerges: by looking for recognisable patterns in chaotic phenomena.” The artist senses a certain degree of nihilism behind this mechanism and perceives it as an inspiring pattern for his methodology.
Siliang Ma (1979) is an artist currently based in Beijing (China). He studied Photography at the Royal College of Art in London. His practice involves photography, sound and installation. Inspired by his years of advertising photography experience, the aesthetics of his works focus on exploring the rhetorical and metaphorical, as well as the instability of visual connotation. Recent exhibitions include Helsinki Photo Festival 2019 and Form 2019 at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Seoul.
Siliang Ma’s solo exhibition “Fluctuation from Disorder to Order” is held at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre for its 3rd International Photography Symposium in cooperation with Riga Photography Biennial.
马司亮
Siliang Ma
Curator: Tatjana Černova
