Memory is the cognitive process by which the brain encodes, stores and extracts information about objective things. It not only serves as a record of personal experience, but also influences the way individuals understand and perceive the world. For the artist, memory is the creative medium, and recollection itself is a sort of hidden bridge between fantasy and reality. Images of memory are vague, concrete lines are difficult to remember with certainty, only the feeling that rises within is preserved. Even if one does not intend to recall, it is possible that at any time and in any place, a pop-up window in an unknown scene will show a fragment of an image that is linked to a past physical experience, and all the scenes experienced in reality will become a part of the memory composition. As the multiple dimensions of life experience lengthen, the quality of memory increases, becomes thicker and dustier, and is overlaid by later memories that are incorporated into the bloodstream, flow into the body, and are shaped into different individual consciousnesses. The cultural memories of the artist's social environment and upbringing flow into the works unconsciously.

Memory is the foundation of higher mental activity. Henri Bergson discusses the centrality of memory in human consciousness in his book Matter and Memory. According to Bergson, memory is part of human consciousness, and through memory, people are able to incorporate past knowledge and experience into their current behavior and thinking. Maurice Halbwachs proposed the theory of "collective memory", which argues that all memories are influence

and shaped by a collective, social framework. This theory emphasizes the importance of social and cultural factors in the formation of individual memories, and indirectly supports the idea that "human beings are made of memories". The artists in this exhibition also depict their own unique psychological space from memory, recreating memories directly or indirectly created in different eras, with nostalgic light filtering through the images, and familiar odors coming to the surface.

Liu Yang's works in this exhibition have two clues of painting techniques: one is the small, quiet paintings on wooden panels that have been made since 2013. The contents are all related to the representation of light, and Liu Yang relies on the warmth of everyday scenes to depict the relationship between light, time, and dust - using dust to represent light, using light to condense time, and using time to shape everything. The oil paintings in the second part have a hidden inner clue, they show from different sides the cruelty, the passing away, the disturbing scene under the beautiful surface. This uneasiness mirrors the overall anxiety of contemporary society, and at the same time relates to the common memories of the past.

Li Yiwen's works express his relationship with the current society in which he is living, and although his works bring the viewer more of a sense of compression and powerlessness, it is also this feeling that creates the desolate atmosphere and undertone of all of Li's works. He hopes that his works are closely related to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of Chinese society in the past few decades, and that his works can express his personal memories distilled from the history of this society, and his understanding of the intertwined temporal nature of memory, reality, and the future, as well as the most basic emotions and feelings of human beings.

In Wang Yabin's recent works on the theme of "Flowers and Stones", the viewer can feel the artist's delicate portrayal of inner experience and complex emotions. Wang Yabin takes traditional Chinese culture and art practice as the object of his research, in the context of contemporary art and the language of local history, as well as thinking about and exploring the significance of the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese culture in the context of contemporary culture. The works presented in Speak, Memory are Wang Yabin's practice of exploring Chinese culture and the spirit of Chinese art in recent years. The highest spirit of Chinese art originates from the philosophical thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Lao Zi's "Taoism and the Law of Nature" is the pursuit of spiritual stability, while Zhuang Zi's "wandering" is the pursuit of spiritual freedom. From the pursuit of spiritual stability to the pursuit of spiritual freedom and emancipation, the establishment of the spiritual kingdom of freedom, to reach the highest state of art, that is, "the life of art". It is along this path that Wang Yabin has integrated Eastern philosophical thinking and Chinese culture and spirit, with secondary school as the basis and Western learning as the use, all in one, without the need for Chinese and Western.

Through the way of thinking of hooking the ancient, Yu Xuhong evokes huge images that are neither figurative depictions nor imitations of thinly veiled ancient paintings. Rather, he abstracts from the inner relationship of painting and does not intentionally pursue external visual similarities. He integrates self-feeling and traditional nourishment to find a balance between creation and the source of the heart, thus forming a unique path of painting. Yu Xuhong melts landscapes into his heart and regurgitates them into his brush, realizing the essence of emotion and righteousness in painting. He encounters the growth of "things" in the transitions of brushwork and the overlapping of colors, and experiences the temporality of painting, which is the gathering of time and space in this kind of painting, and is close to the "image of nature”.

Zhao Bo's works use strongly contrasting symbolic scenes to highlight his reflection and feedback on the reality of civilization. His works reflect the abandonment and desolation of traditional landscapes after rapid industrialization, as well as references to commercialization, the rise of consumer culture, and the phenomenon of the information explosion. He specializes in shocking surreal and dreamy natural scenes to express his deep thoughts on various issues of contemporary life, with magical apocalyptic scenes and dazzling wild colors alluding to the modern and bizarre social chaos and spiritual anxiety. By breaking the time and space boundaries between the virtual world and the real world, and intertwining them in a chaotic way, the narrative of the picture presents an epic sense of grandeur and sublimity.