BEIJING — Magician Space is currently hosting Berlin-based artist Timur Si-Qin’s first solo exhibition in China, “Biogenic Mineral,” curated by Aimee Lin.Centered around a fictional brand called Truth by Peace, Si-Qin’s one-man show is a canny investigation into the psychological manipulations wrought by the image industry that serves to disseminate the products of contemporary consumer culture. For the artist, this consumer culture is “heated, pressurized, and compressed” — just like layers of rocks, minerals, and other geological formations — in order to generate new forms.The photographs in this show depict a fictitious K-Pop boy band that takes its design cues and styling tips from the New York label Hood by Air, while a series of rock-like sculptures in the main gallery space, specially fabricated by a factory in Beijing’s Heiqiao Village, allude to the geological metaphor for culture that the artist is proposing.Elsewhere, octagonal structures fitted with LEDs that Si-Qin calls “visual attractors” serve as catalysts for the evolution — or degeneration, depending on your perspective — of contemporary consumer culture.Raised between cultures — specifically, Berlin, Beijing, and a Native Indian community in the American Southwest — Timur Si-Qin (b. 1984) has often been associated with the contemporary philosophical movements known as “new materialism” and “speculative realism.” His last showing in China was at the “Art Post-Internet” group exhibition held at the Ullens Center of Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing in 2014.Timur Si-Qin’s “Biogenic Mineral” runs through May 17 at Magician Space, Beijing.Follow @ARTINFOHongKong
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