From left: Curator Jonas Stampe, artist Nigel Rolfe and the museum's curator Yan Shijie Photo: Courtesy of Red Brick Art Museum

Performance artist Nigel Rolfe poured a bowl of floury powder over himself from head to toe at the Great Wall on January 28. 

As one of his three live performances in Beijing, Rolfe hoped to engage in "a dialogue with an array of cultural implications and symbolic meanings that the Great Wall has borne through history." 

The Time is Now solo exhibition at Beijing's Red Brick Art Museum follows up on these performances with a review of Rolfe's work through site-specific video, photographs and other eye-catching media. 

Switching between ancient and contemporary times and spaces, Rolfe's three performances offered Chinese audiences a unique experience through the inclusion of sites with a specific Chinese cultural meaning. 

"To experience a live action by Rolfe is to live a unique moment," exhibition curator Jonas Stampe is quoted as saying in a press release sent to the Global Times. "Rolfe knows how to show presence. He seizes the moment in movements and in stillness, inventing sensible images of beauty and meaning."