Swing Oolong Tail 乌龙摆尾 by Andrzej Wasilewski is a continuation of the impressively expansive apocalyptic visual and sound work Sound system or an installation for 8 fans, created for The Absolute Factory exhibition at TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin and then at the Boxes Art Museum in Foshan City. Wasilewski combined a scientific style with a sense of absurdity and black humor. The artist used a language recognizable to him of primitive technological forms, industrial iconography and pop culture, taking up the complex subject of coal and fossil fuels in the context of climate change, weaving new social and political utopias.
In his art practice, Andrzej Wasilewski refers to the relationship of contemporary man with technology, communication, economy, archaeology, research methods and climate change, the nature of which has caused the current ethics, interdependence of genres, and finally creativity itself to become outdated.
At the same time, installation is a play inspired by the spirit of neo-Dada or fluxus practices, counterculture or DIY (do it yourself) methods, stripping away the pathos of inflated values that envelop the language of the world of culture and “disguise” the bloated aesthetics of works in the spirit of art & science, sound-art or minimalism.
The show is accompanied by a text by a Chinese artist, poet and philosopher KENBO (Liang Guojian):
In the concrete jungle by the Pearl River, the coal-black factory exhaust pipe on the rooftop of RoofArt Center cuts through the city skyline in the shape of a Swing Oolong Tail. This installation, created by contemporary Polish artist Andrzej Wasilewski with dark humour, resembles a cup of Oolong Tea forgotten at a post in the world’s factory. After deep roasting, the rich and full tea essence undergoes fermentation in the steel forest, producing an absurd poetic vision that brings a wry smile.
This Kung Fu trick—”Oolong Tail”, may seem unexpected, but it is, in fact, the result of Andrzej Wasilewski’s and TRAFO collaboration with the RoofArt Center team led by Yang Yifan. They skillfully integrated the installation’s original shape and characteristics into the local space and architectural context.
This is part of the The Absolute Factory project – Sound system or a score for 8 air fans which, after being decommissioned at the Box Art Museum in Foshan in 2024, and earlier in TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin in 2023, became part of the permanent collection of the RoofArt Center in Guangzhou. On top of the Pearl River Piano Creative Industry Park, beneath the vast sky, the coal-black factory exhaust pipe stands out starkly, resembling a coiled big black dragon (we call Oolong). Andrzej Wasilewski’s outdoor quasi-theatre installation, complete with philosophical fantasy, once again succeeds in being exhibited in an open public space.
This “Oolong” made from eight industrial exhaust fans has scales formed by rusted coal nails, and its spine is made of curved galvanized steel pipes. In the moist air of Lingnan, it continually exhales mechanical breath as if conversing with the winds of the ancient Silk Road and the sounds of the Pearl River piano playing “All kinds of things from the 8 Holes.” The prelude to industrial civilization and the final chapter of human fate, the logic of creation and destruction, makes it difficult to tell where the oolong begins or ends. Whether it hums softly or howls to the sky, it’s all left to the viewer’s imagination.
KENBO Liang Guojian 健伯-梁国健
