Openness and intuition, the two key approaches that mutually dominate in the works of both Petra Laaper and Le Nghi Teng. Simplistic and free-formed, the sculptures by Petra and photography by Lenghi offer the audience an invite to contemplate.
Gongshi, also known as spirit rocks or scolar rocks, is an object on which petrophiles or scholars , otherwise called lovers of rocks, meditate on.
Traditionally appreciated by Chinese scholars in the Tang dynasty, Gongshi are valued for their appearance. The aesthetics of a spirit rock is based on subtleties of color, shape, markings, surface, and sound. Here, the very concept of Gongshi translates into Petra’s sculptural works, alternative embodiments of the spirits stones, where four different aesthetic qualities are identified: upright stature, openness, perforations and folding.
On the other hand, the space and floating quality in Le Nghi's photographic creation is reminiscent of a white cloud, up and away from the modern world of noises and translate into the tranquility and meditation on the transience and impermanence of all things, the wisdom of letting go.