A new collective exhibition, Tang Ping, open at Arthall gallery in Victoria, is presenting the musings of four artists, Tomas Hed, Hui Sun, Wallace Falzon and Spyke von Stripe on how we can choose to live well.

“The Tang Ping movement, for which this exhibition is named, originated recently in China and translates as ‘lying flat’,” explains curator Marta Obiols Fornell. “It is an increasingly global phenomenon that expresses a rejection of societal pressures to overwork and overachieve in an endless rat race.”

This aligns with recent studies that many people, and Gen Z in particular, are prioritising the work-life balance over a career that jeopardises their mental health and personal well-being.

Thinking Outside the Box by Wallace Falzon

The show is inspired by the musings of the South Korean-born philosopher and cultural theorist Byung Chul Han, a professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

“His book, titled The Scent of Time: a Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering, really resonated with me,” says curator Obiols Fornell.

“For example, he quoted Cato, ‘Never is a man more active than when he does nothing, never is he less alone than when he is by himself’, and Nietzsche, who says, ‘All of you who are in love with hectic work and whatever is fast, new, strange – you find it hard to bear yourselves, your diligence is escape and the will to forget yourself. If you believed more in life, you would hurl yourself less into the moment.’ For me, both rang true.”

Do not Disturb by Tomas Hed

 The curator describes how we all ‘run’: we ‘run’ to be better, to be the best; we ‘run’ fast to chase titles, achievement and positions. This focus on our productivity and time in a meritocracy, however, leads to pressure, burn out and isolation.

“But what are we running towards?” she asks. “And what keeps us moving at such a frenetic pace? Is it wealth? Do we really believe that our happiness depends only on what we have in our pockets? And we’re asking whether we are condemned to continue like this. Is there really no way out?”

“Lying down, in this context, represents passive resistance,” explains Obiols Fornell. “It’s the avoidance of surveillance, and a way of empowering oneself. To lie down is an invitation to ruminate and to delve into the dangers of the unconscious mind, where the claws of control cannot reach. It’s a head space in which we stop being available to the overriding powers.

Surfin’ (I’d rather be) by Spyke von Stripe

“A lack of perceived ambition can be almost embarrassing, yet Tang Ping supports this openly and, in doing so, invites us to rethink how we end up living in a depersonalised way, losing our sense of self and allowing our own feelings, tastes, and opinions to be hijacked in the hurry towards apparent success and prestige.

What are we running towards?

“I don’t remember where or when I heard of Tang Ping the first time, but I thought it would be a great title for an exhibition based around the idea of a contemplative life.”

Video installation by Tomas Hed

Tang Ping draws together the four artists’ voices in different ways and mediums, as they each express their concerns about time, dirty competition, being trapped, kneeling down, and losing autonomy. 

Tomas Hed is artist-in-residence at Arthall. Originally from Sweden, like many people who have chosen to move to Gozo, he relocated to embrace a better work-life balance. Here he has the time to allow his imagination and creativity to go wild.

Silent Space V by Hui Sun2

His paintings, always polemical and provocative, are inspired by an obsession with challenging our societal values and the ‘bubbles’ in which we play out our daily life.

For this show, he has also created a video that pokes fun at AI, and a sculptural piece Do Not Disturb with an iconic hotel door hanger in a criminal evidence bag. This queries whether resting should be considered not a crime and reminds us of the value of being uninterrupted.

Hed is joined by Chinese artist Hui Sun who now lives in Malta and works from a studio in Swieqi. Over the last few years, the artist has created a series of works called Silent Space, in which he incorporates different themes in a single painting to show the conflict between people. The largest canvas in the show, Absurdity and Seriousness I, for example, could be a scene of desolation and oppression, and yet to one side a clown on stilts transforms the mood.  

Qalbi by Wallace Falzon

Another particularly striking piece, Qalbi (My heart), by Maltese-British artist Wallace Falzon, which depicts a reaching child constrained by a white frame, their heart trapped within a body welded from used nails.

It asks the question, what is the life we would like for our children?

Among the wall art, there are also a number of provocative sculptural pieces, including freestanding abstracted figures by Falzon and new work by Canadian-born Spyke von Stripe.

Tang Ping runs until March 30 at Arthall in Victoria, Gozo.