“Laval, a town located by the Loire Valley, is the birthplace of the French painter Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), and to a certain extent, the origin of his works. Taking Laval as a theme and Rousseau’s paintings as a point of departure, I began to unfold my work revolving around the formation and the context of Rousseau's practice.
'How is a work born?' is a question I am constantly thinking about. Through my experiences and interpretations of the time, emotion and spirit in Rousseau’s work, I expand on the discussion of how my perceptions as a painter of another painter's work interact with my own practice.”
---- Cai Zebin
Capsule Shanghai is delighted to premiere at Paris Internationale with “Laval”, a solo project by Chinese artist Cai Zebin (b. 1988 in Shantou, Guangdong Province). The project consists of paintings, sketches; a site-specific installation of laser cut mirrors and wall drawings.
Acting with the accuracy of an art historian and the free spirit of an apprentice, Cai turns the oval room at Paris Internationale into an intimate space resembling an artist’s studio. As silent traces, scattered sketches reorient viewers towards decoding the inner thoughts of the artist and unfold his re-discovery of historical archives.
