Artist: Covey Gong
Exhibition title: Mayfly
Venue: Bodega, New York, US
Date: June 23 – July 27, 2019
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Bodega, New York
Note: Bodega is now called Derosia: https://www.derosia.nyc/
If there is human-made intelligence, what does it
take to create a spirit or a soul?
Do I start by crafting a body?
How to give body to an obscure idea or a myth?
It seems like we always have to work with what we
have, by extracting and deconstructing existing forms,
we create a body by reassembling.
What if the soft tenuous silk adopted a different body?
Can silk be sculpted as flesh?
Can wire and rods be molded into bones?
And does merging “flesh” and “bone” make a hosting
body for a spirit, a soul, a feeling, or a notion?
What difference does it make to generate a body
rather than producing one?
Is the body receptive or interactive?
What’s the consistency of a soul, is it sticky? Smooth? Or watery?
If a spirit finds its body, does it take the shape of its vessel?
Or the other way around?
If a spirit is restless, does the body it resides in
enters a state of dormancy?
Or the other way around?
Is dreaming a process of alien notions finding a host?
A notion takes form into a mythical creature.
As the light dies, a mayfly emerges.
Its entire life bursts.
In a flash.
Dreams creep into my body at night and leave by dawn.
—C.G.
Covey Gong (b.1994, Hunan, China) received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently lives and works in New York. Recent exhibitions include Salt Projects, Beijing (solo); Museum Gallery, Brooklyn; Mother Culture, Los Angeles; And Now, Dallas; Giovanni’s, Queens; and 48/19 Liebhartgasse, Vienna.
Edited by Viola Angiolini
Covey Gong, Mayfly, 2019, exhibition view, Bodega, New York
Covey Gong, Mayfly, 2019, exhibition view, Bodega, New York
Covey Gong, ) (, 2019, Brass, bronze, silk, 73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
Covey Gong, ) (, 2019, Brass, bronze, silk, 73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
Covey Gong, ) (, 2019, Brass, bronze, silk, 73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
Covey Gong, Mayfly, 2019, exhibition view, Bodega, New York
Covey Gong, ( ), 2019, Brass, bronze, silk, 73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
Covey Gong, ( ), 2019, Brass, bronze, silk, 73 x 8 x 8 in (185.4 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm) closed, variable dimensions when open
Covey Gong, 几, 2019, Bronze, acrylic yarn, ballpoint pen on canvas, 10.5 x 5.5 in (26.7 x 14 cm)
Covey Gong, II, 2019, Brass, bronze, silk, acrylic on canvas, 11.5 x 12 in (29.2 x 30.5 cm)
Covey Gong, 回, 2019, Bronze, silk, acrylic and colored pencil on canvas, 13 x 5 in (33 x 12.7 cm)
Covey Gong, Untitled (re: Alfred Kubin), 2019, Bronze, poly confetti yarn, ballpoint pen and colored pencil on canvas, 10.25 x 5 in (26 x 12.7 cm)
Covey Gong, Mayfly, 2019, exhibition view, Bodega, New York