Crashing Exercises: The Fall as a Metaphor for the Present

Fifteen installations built from military aircraft wreckage transform the gallery into a post-war landscape. Dai Zhankun explores the subtle infiltration of military logic into everyday life, starting from the increasingly blurred boundaries between civil and military aviation. In his works, war does not reveal itself directly but creeps into the details: a fighter jet fuel tank merges with an in-flight safety screen; ammunition belts are reimagined as whipped cream chargers. Through assemblages of salvaged materials and 3D-printed objects, the artist gives shape to a world where technologies born from conflict quietly integrate into our daily routines, disguised as progress or security. Each piece becomes a fragment of a broader reflection on how violence is domesticated, normalized, and concealed. Within this disjointed yet familiar landscape, Dai Zhankun prompts us to ask: does flying truly mean to rise, or merely to postpone the fall?