February 7 - May 4, 2025
From Contemporary at Blue Star:
“Contemporary at Blue Star is happy to announce the first installation of the new year, Moonment, an ongoing, touring project by artist Sizhu Li. The exhibition will open to the public during First Friday, February 7, from 6–9pm at Contemporary at Blue Star. The public opening will be preceded by an artist-led walkthrough, happening that morning at 10:30am.
Inspired by her Chinese heritage, Moonment draws from the Tang Dynasty poem “海上升明月，天涯共此” (Gazing at the Moon, Longing from Afar) by Jiuling Zhang. In this moving work, Zhang captures the connection between people who, though separated across vast distances, share in gazing upon the same moon rising above the sea. In Moonment, each site-specific installation uses sheets of aluminum hanging from the ceiling to the floor, with programmed fans propelling the sheets to move, visibly and audibly mimicking the waves of the ocean. Nearby, a heart-shaped moon constructed from a piece of metal and a circulating wooden baton create the heartbeat of the ocean’s tides.
The minimalist and cold industrial materials used to create the installation sit in contrast with its connection to nature. In an interview with STIR, a global media house and curatorial agency, Li remarked: “Mechanics seem cold and make tedious and repetitive work. However, the mechanism changed the speed of human development by leading industrial invention, bringing people to a modern society that seems to stay further from nature and each other. In my piece, I use lifeless machines to create the vivid and trembling wave movement that embeds humour and life in the movement, presenting vitality and humanity. The transition evokes in people the harmony between nature and technology.” Emphasizing the connection between mechanics and nature, Moonment is installed yards away from the flowing San Antonio River.
Li hopes her installation will inspire smiles and, like the sentiments in the poem, connect people across space and time. Curator Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray notes it may also offer viewers “an echo of simplicity within the chaos of modern life. This is the Moonment’s first presentation in Texas and will be on view at Contemporary at Blue Star through May 4, 2025.”
Reception: February 7, 2025 | 6–9 pm
116 Blue Star
San Antonio, 78204 TX
(210) 227-6960
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