Gene Gallery is delighted to announce the Solo Exhibition “Fan-Darboda” by artist Zheng Yi, which is from June 8, 2025, to July 20, 2025.

In the meticulously constructed poetic field of materiality shaped by artist Zheng Yi, the interaction between the individual and the primordial world is further deconstructed into “imprecise” sensuous imitation and “precise” rational interpretation. The divergence, displacement, and paradox between “Really” (i.e., the objective state of things as they are) and “Ought to be” (i.e., the ideal state things ought to achieve under possible conditions) form the central thread of Zheng’s creative practice. It is precisely the uncertainty inherent in the relationship between fact and value that constitutes the core meaning of “Fan-Darboda”: through capturing subtle differences and ruptures, Zheng attempts to reconstruct a wondrous, absurd, and even fantastical spatiotemporal realm—Darboda—thus leading the viewer into a speculative labyrinth interwoven with sensibility and rationality, idealism and reality.

Within the “Fan-Darboda” series, painting and sculpture engage in dialogues and contestations, wherein the two-dimensional and three-dimensional merge in a form of near-synesthetic integration, anchored in the present moment. Although geometric forms—circles and squares in coexistence—constitute the foundational visual elements of his works, Zheng eschews rigid rules and formal symmetry, instead creating what resembles a deconstructed, enigmatic “container.” The juxtaposition of diverse materials—such as the mildness of wood, the cold hardness of aluminum, the transparency of acrylic, and the austere sheen of stainless steel—creates a tension between the mechanical texture of industrial substances and the flowing rhythms of organic forms. This contrast transcends the utilitarian function of ready-made materials as mere tools.

The absurd narrative framework resembles an unresolved logical drama—neither striving for mechanical simulation of reality nor indulging in the illusory fantasy of symbols. Instead, it employs material as a medium and embraces deviation and misalignment as methods to confront the ambiguities of reality head-on. In Zheng’s practice, the spirituality, temporality, and spatiality break free from the material constraints and rational paradigms, opening up new interpretive dimensions and gesturing toward the infinite possibilities of heterogenous space-time.