Désarroi

Xie Le

Info: Following a solo presentation at Caprii last year, Sies + Höke is delighted to present Désarroi, Xie Lei’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Ten new paintings and twenty-two works on paper open a door into a world where things are in a turbulent state of disarray. The term chosen by the artist for the exhibition title symbolises more than just chaos and disorder – Désarroi means collapse, dissipation, decay, defeat, and disorganisation; it can describe mental confusion or deep consternation. Indeed, today it tends to refer to these inner states of distress rather than the material conditions it signified in the 19th century. This is in keeping with the artist’s oeuvre, since Xie Lei does not paint everyday moments, choosing instead to depict these exceptional states and moments of transformation. The figures he sculpts out of the dark background of his canvases with his brush and his own fingers have no clear gender or determinable age. They are, as he himself says, more like phantom figures or anonymous beings. They are difficult to grasp, but they interact with each other in a way that is far from casual. What we see on these canvases is of a captivating intensity. People – or are they ghosts? – seem to be engulfed in flames, melting together in acts of love or violence, embracing each other and holding their heads together in a kind of telepathic exchange. (…)