Aquatic Invasion No.1

HU Wei
109.7 x 38 x 30 cm
Sculpture 16.7 x 38 x 22 cm | Base 93 x 30 x 30 cm
Sculpture | Kiln cast glass, mineral pigments, sagger bases (refractory sand, clay, glaze, black iron, LED lights)
2021

“Aquatic Invasion” is a series of glass, crystalline installations. In the early works of techno band Drexciya, they imagine an underwater kingdom established by people who were thrown into the sea during human trade, and it thus reminds Hu Wei of Turner’s depictions of slave ships and drowned human limbs in sea storms. The artist infuses “historical spirits” into his collection of unidentifiable sea creatures, plants and skeletal fragments, imagining their structures in a planktonic connection to the human body (remains), and how they can generate a kind of body horror backwards. The origin and birth of “Aquatic Invasion” are combined with “body horror” and replaced by a mutated allegory.