Runo B has been fascinated by the group of delivery people since 2022, often envisioning them darting through empty city blocks. During his residency at BY ART MATTERS RESIDENCY, he lived in a community heavily reliant on food and express delivery services. He frequently observed the rush of delivery workers coming and going while smoking on the outskirts of the tianmuli campus, and listened to their conversations. His Deliveryman series paintings bring together two deliverymen from different countries during the pandemic period, depicting them as "bees" and placing them in natural settings like mountains and fields. This "release" of the deliverymen into the wild is a surreal and contradictory image that cannot be found in reality - food cannot be delivered to cliffs, and delivery workers do not have bee tails or run in fields. By creating these jarring and absurd scenes, Runo B hopes to bring new understanding and attention to this often-overlooked group of workers, elevating them from their mundane routines to the realm of cartoon characters and dolls.
About the artist: Runo B
Runo B is a visual artist born in China in 1992 who currently lives and works in Venice, Italy. He earned his B.A. in Visual Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 2017 and his M.A. in Visual Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2020. He has been recognised for his artistic achievements, receiving the Artist Award final list from the Premio Francesco Fabbri Foundation, Italy in 2021 and the Arte Laguna Artist Award, Italy in 2017.
Runo B's current research and creative focus involves deconstructing symbolic texts and images from food culture, intercultural phenomena, and social events. He aims to create final images that are open to interpretation and reflection by audiences of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Through his art, Runo B hopes to foster cross-cultural understanding and dialogue, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own cultural perspectives and interpretations of the world around them.
photo by Runo B
