Unknown Creature - Three Headed Monster

Shen Shaomin adopts the role of being anthropologist, scientist and author of his own fabricated mythologies; his works feature a convergence of a life-long interest in fossils, mythical creatures and modern developments in bio-technology. Constructed from real animal bones, his sculptures collectively create a bestiary of fictional creatures as boldly seen in Unknown Creature - Three Headed Monster . Reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges's Book of Imaginary Beings from 1957, Shen's surreal assemblage exudes an ancient wisdom, authenticating the magic of fable and folklore, while alluding simultaneously to contemporary issues of genetic modification, consequence of environmental threat, and concepts of the alien and exotic.

Fusing these seemingly disparate influences, Unknown Creature - Three Headed Monster is as much a relic of the past as it is a Frankenstein-like creature concocted from a laboratory experiment. This idiosyncratic approach to sculpture as science fiction provides a futuristic backdrop to Shen's processes of making; and the paradoxical slippage between the real and theatrical, futuristic and archaic is what makes Unknown Creature - Three Headed Monster both wondrous and otherworldly.