T.B   Works   Preview   News   Information   Contact

T.B
阿发



At the He Art Museum, designed by Tadao Ando, Fan Bo’s exhibition became a focal point of attention, shaped as much by his multiple identities as by the works themselves. In the Chinese context, art is always in tension and confrontation with its environment. The exhibition presents a state in which established belief structures have become unstable: statues from both Eastern and Western traditions, carrying symbolic meaning, are no longer stable—they tilt, invert, or reveal only their backs. They no longer look down on humanity, losing authority. This treatment reads more as a playful, ironic response than as direct criticism.

Within this context, my design did not introduce a new visual narrative, but applied a deliberate displacement to the “existing order”: texts originally laid out normally were duplicated and offset in silver—the material language of the sculptures—creating tilt and imbalance. The text thus loses stability, continually deviating through repetition. This approach is most fully realized in the exhibition catalogue: art critique texts are reorganized, the reading order of Chinese and English is deliberately inverted, and correspondence is established between the grid system and page numbers. Chinese is printed in black ink, English in silver, creating a dual-layered shift in both visual and reading experience.

Within the exhibition space, visual intervention is kept to an absolute minimum, limited to displaced and inverted excerpts on the walls. The overall visual language is extremely restrained, akin to spatial shifts that are only noticeable in reflection—a structural displacement that is not overt but persistently present.

After the exhibition opened, it triggered multiple voices of discussion and critique. These critiques did not solely target the works themselves, but more so Fan Bo in his capacity as the academy’s director. This focus reflects society’s complex attitude toward “elites.” As both an art academy administrator and an artist, he stands at a crossroads of technical and aesthetic transitions, with his practice and position marked by hesitation and experimentation. The complexity of his identity continuously generates projections and critique from different levels. The controversy surrounding the exhibition places him in the public eye as a subject of ongoing observation and evaluation—much like his own works. In a sense, Fan Bo also becomes part of the exhibition itself.
Category: 
Poster Design / Catalogue Design / Exhibition Design

Project Title: 
A Fable of Prophecy

Client: 
He Art Museum

City:
Foshan

Year: 
2025Art Director:
Tian Bo

Designer: 
Li Tong

Project Manager:
Wang Man

Dimension:
Various