JNBY Concept Store The Grand Summit, South, Level 2, 19 Dong Fang East Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Xu Qu: Hunting

2015.9.20 - 2015.12.27

Location:  JNBY Concept Store The Grand Summit, South, Level 2, 19 Dong Fang East Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

From 20 September to 27 November, JNBY and UCCA present "Xu Qu: Hunting."

Designed with the physical layout and surroundings of JNBY concept store in mind, the installation Hunting is an extension of Xu Qu's continued research into sports, their corresponding playing fields, and the interstitial moments produced therein. Here, the artist guides viewers on a plotted course through a tennis court, questioning the sport's social and cultural status with phenomenological play.

The general visual experience of a tennis court consists of the synthetic court, wire fencing, and consumer products that dress participants. In the midst of rapid urbanization, the sport has taken on a new status for the burgeoning middle class, a means to maintain fitness in order to better engage the physical demands of an urban lifestyle. The new, post-industrial generation has grown up accustomed to the sport, enjoying it as players and viewers. In the midst of the sport, time is separated into the active and inactive according to the state of the ball. A dead ball is "useless," unable to produce the elation of movement, and renders time meaningless. Players must immediately pick up the ball and start again. Hunting presents a state filled with imagination and transformation, distilling the dead ball situation by ridding the court of its physical conditions and solidifying the "interstitial" into scenes that allow viewers to contemplate the entire process. Viewers can also engage the scene through their own actions. The participation of consumers becomes dictated by the tennis ball, while the exercise gear hints at the absence of tennis players. The wire fencing separates areas of motion and non-motion, forming an emotional tension and delimiting player and audience, proprietor and consumer.

Download "Xu Qu: Hunting" press release.

About the Artist

Xu Qu (b. 1978, Jiangsu province) received a BFA from the oil painting department of Nanjing Art Institute in 2002 and later studied fine art from 2005 to 2007 at the Braunschweig University of Art, Germany, under Professor John Armleder and Birgit Hein, Diplom. He completed Meisterschüler [postgraduate study program] under Professor John Armleder in 2008. He is currently based in Beijing.

About JNBY

JNBY (Hangzhou JNBY Finery Co. Ltd.) was established in 1994. As one of the pioneering designer-based enterprises in China, JNBY meas "Just Naturally Be Yourself" and naturally become its own brand through continuous innovation. In this fragmented and homogenized information age, most people, as individuals, lack curiosity about the future as well as the ability to explore. JNBY represents a passion for the unknown and a yearning for the new, exploring the very meaning of life through daily study and exercise. The products of JNBY embody this spirit from design to production to consumer.

About JNBY Group

Established in 1994, JNBY Group includes JNBY, Croquis, less, and jnby by JNBY, representing different brands for the wide variety of groups served by our designs. Over the past twenty years JNBY Group has sought to distill the latest in global trends of fashion, bringing Chinese consumers the best of what is new and becoming a platform for China’s best in design.