World of Thousands is a collaborative exhibition by Tibetan artist Gonkar Gyatso and Chinese artist Liu Zhuoquan, two artists with strong ties to Buddhism. The artists transform the Space Station gallery by covering the walls and floors with objects of desire from this worldly realm.

This is a participatory work created specifically for this exhibition by Gokar one of the few Tibetan artists invited to participate in the 2009 Venice Bienniale. For this piece he collected hundreds of images, from political images to pop culture Hello Kitty stickers. These images are strewn all over the floor. Visitors are encouraged to pick up the stickers and cut outs and glue them onto the piece to create a collective memory of the modern world. The work will be completed after the exhibition ends.

Liu Zhuoquan bottle series is a site to be seen. Painstakingly created by using a traditional and almost extinct technique, each bottle bears an image that the artist has been painted inside the bottle.

Inspired by his own childhood memories of the ashes at Buddha’s alter, Liu Zhuoquan has painted images of dead babies, deformed fetuses, monsters and other bizarre creatures on the bottles. Other bottles are filled with mold, constantly growing and evolving.

Space Station Art