"a room with paper rolls" is an exhibition of recent works by gantea, which runs from 9 September to 6 November. The exhibition presents several series of works by the creator: Orchids and plants, Snowman Snowballs, Bunny Apples, Penguin, the give it up series and part of comic works.

Most of gantea's work is presented in the form of paperback comics, which revolve around everyday observations and imaginings of things, and the exhibition is presented in a way that divides the space into different places, all of which are softly connected to the 'domestic' space. gantea draws loose relationships between animals, plants, people and objects. The room is the place we know best, it creates an image of a safe space, a safe atmosphere that allows us to have a dialogue with ourselves, and a physical space where those wandering, ambiguous emotions can find a place to stay.

At the same time, most of the content of gantea's comics comes from her personal experience, but the emotions that pervade them point to an experience we all share, a kind of depression, elation, or caring and touching from fragmented moments, which become the outlets for our emotions in life.

Baudelaire, in The Painter of Modern Life, wrote of his understanding of the aesthetics of modernity: "Modernity is instantaneous, ephemeral, accidental, half of art, the other half eternal and unchanging. ". He argues that the beauty of modernity is made up of two parts, one part is historical, it passes with time. The other part is poetic, it is non-temporal, it is the part that can stand alone from the passage of time.

Modernity divides time into minutes and seconds, and our generation is more able to feel the passage of time than previous eras. We are made up of the present, and all our uniqueness comes from the imprints that time leaves on our senses. gantea's comics are like slices taken out of the stream of time, allowing us to touch something fixed in existence.

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Instagram：gantea

gantea is a comic book author, born in Urumqi, Xinjiang, now living in Shanghai

Orchids：


"The park near my home has opened a garden centre, and I like to stop by and look at the flowers on my way back from grocery shopping, but only to look. One day at the end of the year, I passed by the garden centre again and bought a small orchid with only a sword and a pair of leaves, which was placed amongst the daffodil bulbs, bamboos, and various potted plants with ribbons. The teacher at the garden centre told me, 'It has one month left to bloom, so if you want to buy it, you can get it cheaper', and gave me some water moss, saying, 'They are real moss'.

This Phalaenopsis was the first plant I raised after living alone, and she ended up flowering much longer than expected, giving the illusion of 'eternity'. After that I started to paint orchids (and a few other plants too, of course). "

Snowman Snowballs：

"Snow is my favourite thing, so I've always wanted to draw snow-related comics, and in late 2019, when I was stuck in Hainan with my mum by an epidemic, I started drawing snowmen from that time. "

Bunny Apples：

"I was entertained by a friend with a perfectly cut bunny apples, so I drew the bunny apples in the same mood of entertaining my friend. "

Penguin：

" In 2021, I received a home delivery carton from a friend with books, toys, and clumps of newspaper used as filler. The unfolded newspaper, with columns and sections dividing the newsprint into a rhythmic grid, made me want to fill in the story, so I drew the first penguin story (the plot: a baby penguin breaks out of an egg just as a seal is about to open its mouth and attack the penguin). Then I saw unfolded cardboard boxes that I wanted to draw on, and then I drew penguins on all sorts of things that weren't drawing paper.

Penguins have a tough, timid and somewhat unlucky existence, always falling into seal ambushes and hunter traps, and in late 2020 and into 2022, I'll be going to work, coming home from work, cooking, sleeping, finding time in the cracks, and often feeling like 'I'm living like a penguin'. "

give it up

"I participated in the postpost project, creating and selecting images based on Franz Kafka's short novel Give It Up !

The protagonist in the novel is rushed and anxious, and after reading it, I felt the same way about being caught up in the moment, so I drew the dog.

He can't read the time on an ancient Japanese clock, and when he looks at the time, he can only associate it with out-of-season fruits, feelings that don't belong to the present moment, and the absence of his own kind. He thought, 'The dog looks like me,' and finally drew this pile of scattered images. "

Comic Works：

gantea：有着纸团的房间 A room with crumpled paper balls


卡斯普多特 cusp. 杭州市上城区凤山路79号商业储运中心3仓3楼303

2023.9.9 - 11.6，6/7

策划：葛睿璟，叶易，gantea

视觉设计：herbr

致谢：周雨，黄懋冰，金辉，不馋


Curated by Ruijing Ge, Ye Yi, gantea

Visual Design by herbr

Special thanks to Zhou Yu，Huang Maobing，Jin Hui，Bu Chan