The video ends with half-building-half-mountain structures: It appears the landscape has really been changed by geological movement.
Similarly, his collage works and other computer-generated prints are also of these surreal and supernatural themes, such as laser devices installed inside a volcano.
Arena candidly admits his playful works have no particular meaning - they are just interesting images. He does everything out of interest, saying that if anything interested him more than art, he would not have chosen art.
Arena, born in 1979, started out as a comic author, but shifted to many different jobs, all because his interests changed. As for his current field of contemporary art, he says it's not necessary to be serious about it because that's just how things go - "serious" isn't important.
"In this historical period in contemporary art, if you really want to talk about cultural things, you will end up with nothing," he says, "because people who can think are only a very small portion of the people, so your audience will be very small."
Date: through July 12, 10:30am-7pm
Address: 78 Changping Rd
Tel: 5228-6776
(Shanghai Daily July 4,2008)
