‘End of the beginning’ was a major invited two-person exhibition at the Art Gallery of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA), an international venue in Liaoning Province, China, comprising site-specific installation, video, print, drawings and graphic works, with associated lectures, talks, interviews and an academic symposium. The exhibition and events were at the invitation of Professor Wei Ershen, President of LAFA and Deputy Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, following Barfield’s invited lecture in November 2012. A key intended purpose was to bring new levels of intercultural dialogue among publics and professionals, and to stimulate the development of fine art research in Chinese academic discourse. Involved in discussions was Ma Shulin, Deputy Director, National Art Museum of China (NAMOC).
The exhibition built on two decades of Barfield’s visual research into problems in the philosophy of space, with new work being created specifically for the event to investigate the question of enantiomorphism, as formulated by – and contested since – Kant’s prolegomena. The research problem was interrogated methodologically through spatial intervention within a dedicated location, in addition to large-scale drawings, video works and print series that examined enduring spatial problems (e.g. Le Poidevin, 2003) and site specificity. Video installations also explored, methodologically, disjunctive and dialogical practices in order to further to investigate simultaneity theory.
The exhibition was accompanied by television and press interviews, conferment of a visiting professorship on Barfield, and a symposium with senior academics and researchers on the research content of the exhibition, and cultural perspectives on art and design research. Related forthcoming outcomes include a research journal article in ‘Mei Yuan’ (published by the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, December 2013) and major exhibitions in Dalian and Guangzhou (both 2014).