Rong Bao is exploring brave new worlds [and reframing old ones] with the vibrant and extraterrestrial sculptures of her newest collection, Alien Rhapsody.
A huge, translucent, lightbulb-shaped inflatable lurks in the center of the room. Soft pinks and oranges glow from within, interspersed amongst lightning flashes of bright, fluorescent light. Simultaneously, blue furred tentacles sleepily brush along the inside, pushing and testing at the thin membrane, as the entire sculpture trembles, barely containing an energy within that is just waking up.
Titled Alien Rhapsody, this sculpture is part of Rong Bao’s newest collection of works which were most recently exhibited at the Royal College of Art 2023 Show. While at first extraterrestrial and incomprehensible, a closer look at her alien-like sculptures reveal its composition to be made of common household paraphernalia: plastic spring toys and rubber hoses, exercise balls and pipe cleaners. Transforming the mundane into the extraordinary is part of Rong’s mission, to use art in a ‘humorous, playful, and relaxed way to satirize and mock the world's conventional systems.’
‘I’m considered a conventionally successful child’, admits Bao. ‘All the schools I attended since kindergarten have been amongst the best in Beijing, China, or even the world.’ However, at one of the world’s most prestigious art colleges, the China Academy of Art, Bao found her artistic expression limited in a major which ‘lacked a critical perspective on contemporary practices.’ In this stage of life, Bao found relief contemporary art. She turned to the works of Francis Aly and Roman Signer, in whose works she observes that, ‘There is a certain element of relaxed and playful humor in their works, with an emphasis on the dynamism of the work.’ The humor and eccentricity in contemporary art allowed her escape from these self-described ‘dark times’: ‘It was the only outlet for me, someone who was unwilling to conform to conventional norms.’ It is perhaps Bao’s insistence on breaking away from convention that has won her her recent successes – in 2022, Rong was awarded Top 10 of China UCCA Lab x Perrier New Emergency Artist, and in the very same year, she made it onto the UK New Contemporaries 2022 Shortlist.
Complying with Bao’s convention-rejecting ethos, Alien Rhapsody works to shatter an old world view in order to leap into something new. The classical, solipsist view – that humans are often the center of everything – cannot help but be upended in the presence of these alien ‘life forms, incubating within embryos.’ In this scenario, we are the intruders that force ourselves onto this ‘complex, multidimensional life’ as we try to comprehend this fluorescent, incomprehensible life form. ‘Humans are just a part of the grand scroll of universal life,’ Bao explains. ‘We are not soloists but part of the grand chorus in the boundless universe […] Each leap, compression, and transformation of these alien life forms resembles a self-composed symphony. Like life's spores preparing for the final germination, tension precipitates from the periodic accumulation of energy.’
Bao lets us in on some of the elements that sparked her creative process for Alien Rhapsody – One major influence, she points out, was the chaotic and eclectic Chinese YaBi subculture, with its bright, often clashing patterns and colours, and non-coherent aesthetic. The sheer chaos – and utter relish in this chaos – runs riotous in Alien Rhapsody. But more than that, what inspired Bao most was the color that now flows through the entire collection of sculptures – fluorescent pink. ‘Pink, to me, is a very special color. Just like the popular ‘Barbie’, it's a color full of female power […] pink [gives the sculptures] the sense of a maternal organ.’ And this artistic choice only draws us further into Bao’s world. In these womblike shapes and colors, an earnest, human vulnerability is found amongst extraterrestrial life.
It's a busy year of exhibitions for Bao’s work. Currently, one of Bao’s sculptures can be found exhibiting in the Huangsongyu Earth Art Festival in Beijing, China, and another at the Tang Mei Art Museum in Guangdong respectively. After that, Bao is scheduled to exhibit publicly in the artist garden at Templ Station, hosted by the Colab/RCA/YSP artist residency. And finally, in October and November, her work will also appear at a group exhibition at the Guts Gallery, an exhibition for the Middlesborough Art Week, and a group exhibition at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation.
To see more of Rong Bao’s work online, you can find photos on her Instagram at @rongbaobaobao.
