Introduction
Acid Star Club is a temporary club created by artist Tianzhuo in the Star Gallery space. Of course, one may understand the club as a refuge, a meditation room, or a temple for worship. Here, Tianzhuo leverages his position as artist to mobilize all manner of visitors in a carnivalesque gathering, effectively testing the dichotomy of exhibition experience between ordinary visitors and art world insiders. With this congregation, the artist maliciously annuls the political implications of the gallery as a platform for the promotion and dissemination of art. It is a vain attempt to reverse day and night, to turn the gallery into an adventure park for artists, freelancers, opinion leaders, Internet celebrities, drug dealers, con artists, brokers, and buyers.
In fact, Tianzhuo’s aim is to construct a contemporary religion, and to serve ultimately as its leader. As described by the Freemasons’ motto “order out of chaos” and predicted by Buddhist prophecies of the Dharma-Ending Age, the secularization of religious practices continues to obliterate singular beliefs. This phenomenon draws a heavy parallel to contemporary art, where rules are ignored, visual art grows increasingly reliant on theory alone, and creativity continues to regress, leading to a chaotic context within which the artist can construct a “contemporary religion.” Just as traditional religions dictate order in a world of chaos, Tianzhuo attempts to study and extract aspects from various religions that may be easily re-appropriated, in order to formulate a method that helps us survive in this world both physically and spiritually. At the same time, religious symbols and images possess the quality to easily disseminate to provide new possibilities for his practice. One might recall classical Western painting and its visualization of the Bible, conveying life, death, and redemption. Sanctity and warning provide far more direct methods of communication than does the written word—a narrative strategy easily detectable in Tianzhuo’s works.
Tianzhuo’s “religion” is based on appeal, and “followers” enter his camp because they agree with his philosophy. From this arises trust. The intellectual harmony, as it spreads, gathers in numbers and strength, eventually forming a spiritual alliance. Whereas art attempts to awaken the collective consciousness, Tianzhuo works to establish the individual, whereby minds that have been conditioned by experience and the status quo can build strength in independence. Tianzhuo targets the average Joe rather than the truth-seekers, wishing to integrate his works directly into the viewer experience. That is why he has opened the invitation equally to every kind of audience, abandoning conventional models of “art.” He does not obsess over meaning, nor is he indifferent to it; the audience is encouraged to abandon previous experience, to expect more efficient means of spiritual exchange, more reciprocal forms of passion. Inside the temporary temple that is Acid Star Club are guardians, poison, and deities, all testament to a religion and all protagonists in the foundation of a ritual space, brimming with conviction and power. Here the idols have fallen. You may choose to touch their remains, to meet the gaze of the all-seeing Eye, and with the aid of belief, find momentary escape.
Acid Star club welcomes you. Artists are welcome. Losers are welcome. Amidst the brilliance of illusion, you are welcome to exchange bodily fluids, to exchange ideas, to seek cheap thrills, to drink in celebration of a short-lived tomorrow.
——Sasha Zhao
In fact, Tianzhuo’s aim is to construct a contemporary religion, and to serve ultimately as its leader. As described by the Freemasons’ motto “order out of chaos” and predicted by Buddhist prophecies of the Dharma-Ending Age, the secularization of religious practices continues to obliterate singular beliefs. This phenomenon draws a heavy parallel to contemporary art, where rules are ignored, visual art grows increasingly reliant on theory alone, and creativity continues to regress, leading to a chaotic context within which the artist can construct a “contemporary religion.” Just as traditional religions dictate order in a world of chaos, Tianzhuo attempts to study and extract aspects from various religions that may be easily re-appropriated, in order to formulate a method that helps us survive in this world both physically and spiritually. At the same time, religious symbols and images possess the quality to easily disseminate to provide new possibilities for his practice. One might recall classical Western painting and its visualization of the Bible, conveying life, death, and redemption. Sanctity and warning provide far more direct methods of communication than does the written word—a narrative strategy easily detectable in Tianzhuo’s works.
Tianzhuo’s “religion” is based on appeal, and “followers” enter his camp because they agree with his philosophy. From this arises trust. The intellectual harmony, as it spreads, gathers in numbers and strength, eventually forming a spiritual alliance. Whereas art attempts to awaken the collective consciousness, Tianzhuo works to establish the individual, whereby minds that have been conditioned by experience and the status quo can build strength in independence. Tianzhuo targets the average Joe rather than the truth-seekers, wishing to integrate his works directly into the viewer experience. That is why he has opened the invitation equally to every kind of audience, abandoning conventional models of “art.” He does not obsess over meaning, nor is he indifferent to it; the audience is encouraged to abandon previous experience, to expect more efficient means of spiritual exchange, more reciprocal forms of passion. Inside the temporary temple that is Acid Star Club are guardians, poison, and deities, all testament to a religion and all protagonists in the foundation of a ritual space, brimming with conviction and power. Here the idols have fallen. You may choose to touch their remains, to meet the gaze of the all-seeing Eye, and with the aid of belief, find momentary escape.
Acid Star club welcomes you. Artists are welcome. Losers are welcome. Amidst the brilliance of illusion, you are welcome to exchange bodily fluids, to exchange ideas, to seek cheap thrills, to drink in celebration of a short-lived tomorrow.
——Sasha Zhao
