Wholeness is the far shore we ceaselessly pursue. Whether it takes the form of an ideal or of God, the moment we reach it, the restless movement of life comes to an end.

Crevices appear on a surface that seems whole. We do everything we can to conceal them, yet their vitality bears witness to the reality of our existence.

We exhaust our minds and pursue our goal with all our strength, yet this river toward the far shore carries us only into an ocean called nothingness. Looking back, the crevices that once seemed unbearable offer us islands of existence. Like a mirror, they allow consciousness to return to itself. Through these crevices, the constant interactions between the subject and the world emerge as we reflect upon ourselves. Being (Sein) itself dwells in these traces; life stirs within the inner field beneath the crevices.

Wei Jinchun’s first solo exhibition, The Return of the Crevice, presents four works spanning photography, installation, and performance, revealing crevices in different aspects of the artist’s life. Using bamboo from the hills behind his family home in Guangxi, he weaves a cage, confines himself within it, and presents himself as a live exhibit. Drawing on his own experiences, he also explores family issues, reflecting on and expressing remorse for his own actions and those of his family. At the center of the exhibition, a video installation brings together surveillance footage of a performance, eight television screens, and more than 150 kilograms of study materials from his junior and senior high school years to give form to his reflections. In a space hung with strips of burlap, his major photographic series Tangshan presents his thoughts on the city’s history and present, developed while living and walking there.

Through this exhibition, the artist seeks to give varied forms to his experiences of, and reflections on, his past, while allowing art to mediate a dialogue with viewers. Here, the crevices are no longer a past to be avoided. As a moment in a dialectical process, they remain in motion, becoming being-there (Dasein).