Xu Qu was born in Jiangsu Province in 1978. He graduated from Braunschweig HBK, Germany and got the bachelor’s degree of painting and movie. In this first solo exhibition after he came back to China, the artist presented a series of works that inspired by a sport event-archery.
As for competitive sports, usually people only pay attention to the training of muscles, the pursuit of skills, or even the so-called aesthetics when the body is in the ultimate limit state. They tend to ignore the differences between all sorts of standards and the aesthetic value hidden during the process of their establishment. For example, the last link in the chain of archery-the target sheet. The artist is sensitive to the minimalism in painting and has found opportunities to express it. After being shot by the artist, the target sheets became abstract works which seem free of any kind of control. In the respect of the body, the sportsman practiced a circulating demonstration to some accurate standard. In Xu Qu’s opinion, the uncertainty and contingency of behaviors can not only participate in the construction of an aesthetic taste, but also eliminate the nervousness and anxiety people usually have for plastic arts. From this angle, they are their respective arenas.
