Duration: 13-19 Oct 2026
Time: 10am–9:30pm daily
Location: Paragon Main Atrium, Level 1
290 Orchard Road, Singapore
The Chinese character “相” (xiang) speaks both of relation and of perceived form. Read as xiāng, it points to the connections that continually unfold between living beings; read as xiàng, it refers to the forms and states through which things appear in the world. In recent years, Gao Xiaowu has remarkably turned his attention to ecology and the relationships between life, exploring how they connect, circulate and sustain one another.
For Gao, sculpture goes beyond the crafting of physical form. His practice begins with observing the world, moving from myriad forms toward the many states and relations they embody: nature sustains us, and through living we come to know the world; moving between tradition and creation, we continually reshape our relationship with it.
These concerns run through the different stages of Gao’s practice. City Dream series grew out of the experience of urban life, addressing the persistent tension between reality and aspiration while giving outward form to states of being shaped by a particular time and environment. Rebirth series turns towards nature, depicting the transformation and regeneration of life with poetry and restraint, reawakening our sense of nature in its primal state. His Chinese Zodiac series returns to cultural tradition. Gao reshapes familiar animal totems long associated with symbolic meaning, making traditional imagery feel less remote. Their rounded, playful forms bring these ancient xiang into a contemporary context, where tradition is granted new vitality through continued transformation.
Gao’s practice can therefore be understood as a progressively deepening act of giving form to being. It begins with the lived urban experience, expands into an investigation into natural life, and arrives at a renewed articulation of cultural identity. Grounded in an acute awareness of a changing reality, Gao’s artistic language, which is marked by wit and warmth, resists passive conformity and invites us to reconsider our place in the world and our relationship with the time in which we live.
