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Summer 2025 Exhibition Proposal

 

Artist: Zeqi Tang

Programme: MA Fine Art: Painting

 

 

Exhibition Title:

Elegy to the Unattainable

 

 

Concept

 

This body of work explores the emotional tension between transience and eternity, offering an elegiac gaze toward beauty that is both deeply affecting and forever out of reach. The exhibition consists of three metaphor-driven paintings accompanied by minimal installations that evoke quiet ritual and introspection:

 

  • Moon — a symbol of distant, unpossessable beauty

  • Fallen Flowers — evoking fragility, impermanence, and the melancholy of decay

  • Stone — representing solitude and permanence, a presence that endures without demand

 

Together, these works reflect a poetic meditation on desire, absence, and time.

 

 

Form & Presentation

 

  • Works shown: Three paintings (each approx. 60 × 90 cm), each paired with a small installation

  • Mediums: Acrylic on canvas, accompanied by organic objects (e.g. fresh fruit)

  • Display format: Wall-hung paintings presented in a quiet, dimly lit area to encourage contemplation. Small objects will be placed on low plinths or the floor directly in front of each painting.

  • Atmosphere: A meditative and immersive setting, with professional lighting on each painting and a soft surrounding ambiance.

 

 

Special Requirements

 

  • A calm, undisturbed space away from restrooms or heavy traffic

  • Ideally, a north-south orientation with paintings facing a door or window

  • Some floor space in front of the wall for installation objects

  • If projection is added later, one power outlet will be needed (equipment PAT tested)

 

 

Health & Safety

 

  • Fresh fruits may pose hygiene/slip risks and will be monitored daily

  • All materials handled responsibly to avoid spoilage or contamination

  • No hazardous or heavy materials involved

  • Risk Assessment and PAT testing (if projection is included) will be completed as required

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Research Festival Proposal

 

Artist: Zeqi Tang

Programme: MA Fine Art: Painting

 

 

1. Format Chosen:

 

  • Student-led Panel Discussion

  • Written Research Article (for online publication)

 

 

2. Working Title:

 

“So Close: Landscape, Distance, and the Aesthetics of the Unreachable”

 

 

3. Proposal Overview:

 

I intend to contribute to the Research Festival through both a collaborative student-led panel discussion and a written research article. Both elements will develop from my current artistic project, which examines emotional and philosophical responses to landscape, distance, and unattainable beauty.

 

In the panel discussion, I hope to bring together peers working with similar themes—such as solitude, ephemerality, or poetic symbolism in visual practice—for a cross-disciplinary exchange facilitated by a guest artist or doctoral researcher.

 

The written piece will expand on the critical reflection I have been developing for Unit 2. It draws on cross-cultural symbolism of the moon, Roland Barthes’ theories of image and text, and my own experiences of winter landscapes in Northern Europe, connecting the aesthetics of longing with ideas of presence and absence.

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