Chinese Art Collective Encourages Fitness in Vancouver
Polit-Sheer-Form Office, "Fitness for All!," 2014, installation view at The Armory Show, New York, 2014, (courtesy of the artists)
A Chinese contemporary art collective presents an installation encouraging fitness for all at the Vancouver Art Gallery's Offsite public art space this fall.
It's the first Canadian show for the five-member collective, Polit-Sheer-Form Office or PFSO, which will produce a five-piece set of exercise equipment on the site at 1100 West Georgia St.
It will appear against vinyl text that suggests establishing a more collective self-awareness fosters inclusivity and collaboration within a community.
The installation's title, Fitness for All (Vancouver), alludes to a Chinese slogan encouraging physical exercise among citizens.
It will be on view from Nov. 3 to March 31.
The gallery's director, Kathleen Bartels, says Vancouver residents are known as being conscious of their health, but often exercise by themselves.
"Polit-Sheer-Form Office invites the public to consider perspectives of collectivity and individuality through the action of working out together," she says. "This installation is a symbol for the importance of shared experiences in supporting a community’s well-being.”
The collective was founded in 2005 by artists Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua, and curator/critic Leng Lin. Shared activities like talking, traveling, eating, reading and playing are a commentary on political, cultural and spiritual life in contemporary China.
The artists represent a generation that bore witness to China’s shift from a country upholding Communism as both its economic and political order, to one of capitalist ideals and Communist governance.
Source: Vancouver Art Gallery
