加载中…The Inverse of Normal
(2008-10-01 03:37:59)
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The
Inverse of Normal
by Fang Zhenning
I see a painting that appears
vastly empty. As I walk closer, I find on the canvas there seems to
be a half-naked woman suspended in the air from an extremely thin
red thread, trying to make her move forward with two hands, a
picture that inevitably sets up suspense in the viewer. The creator
of this painting is Liu Qiming. It reminds me of the Japanese
writer Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s famous fiction “The Spider's
Thread”, which narrates that a group of sinners trapped in the
Hell, were desperately attempting to climb up a spider’s thread
that was lowered down from the heaven. What happened next is hard
to imagine. The exquisiteness of imagery in the fiction has reached
perfection under the writer’s hand, and the story presents us the
world through Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s eyes.
《我的1989 NO.03》
刘骐鸣
布面油画
70X90CM
2007年
《我的2008 NO.05》
刘骐鸣
布面油画
120X166CM
2008年
In Liu Qiming’s paintings, one
could notice that the use of extremely thin threads and fine lines
has become the artist’s dominant language, an established painterly
style, which is formed throughout a succession of life events. Two
kinds of individual experiences resonate in his work: one is his
painting career; another, life itself. During 1995 and 2006, Liu
Qiming didn’t leave a traceable imprint on our mind, until the
thread series, which shows a drastic change. The threads, just like
nerves in our bodies, find their way to the most sensitive parts of
our life and, on the other hand, they suggest a continuum of
floating.
Floating, falling and inverting can
be reckoned as intrusions into the order of the normal state in an
extreme manner. In his “Li Wei falls…” series, Li Wei tests
dimension of freedom and defies gravity by having his own body
thrust into various locations like a flying object. Li Wei didn’t
stop on the scenario during the course of flying; he would rather
select the moment when the ‘flying object” lands somewhere. The
composition of the picture transmits the message that his existence
is temporary and just like a time bomb that was discovered, or a
nail household that cannot escape being demolished. Sometimes, he
bumped into the sea, but maintained half-immersed and perfectly
erect above the water. His body is used as stage properties in his
stuntman’s show, and this unique way of artistic representation has
been Li’s signature method and has not been shared
yet.
Although Liu Zhuoquan’s work is
devoid of a consistent style, his accomplishment in the art still
comes through from within. Liu’s photographic installation
Who? sheds light on human nature by
discovering historical evidence from a lunatic asylum in
Zhangjiakou. If it were not for Liu’s work, many would be kept in
dark about the fact that thousands of veterans, who have survived
the Korean War a half century ago, are spending the rest of their
lives miserably in the asylum. And Liu has built a monument to pay
homage to those who have lived through a history. In folk society,
inner-painting art on snuff bottles and glass bottles is artistic
handicraft and skill passed down along direct line of descent. For
Liu Zhuoquan’s Old Articles, it is a means to seal memory. Fragments of life
are painted on the inside of glass bottles, but once a rusty
bullet, a lock from the Cultural Revolution, or a needle used by
the artist’s father has been meticulously portrayed, these old
items become latently related with time. Liu Zhuoquan has used coal
and mixed substance to reproduce landmark buildings such as CCTV
Tower. Isn’t it a miracle that coal can be transformed into an
aesthetic object to create such a powerful visual
shock?
Artist acts differently from
ordinary people and different actions lead to different results.
The rich has right to buy a “Hummer” for himself, and the artist
will harm nobody if she takes delight in sewing an inflatable
“Hummer” with soft materials like leather and sponge, and then
leave it collapsed with insufficient air. But don’t forget to keep
those rich materialistic consumers and “Hummer” owners away from
it. It happens all the same in every era that money is spent away
in different ways by different people. Material and spiritual types
of consumption exist in parallel. The red soft-bodied car series
labels Qi Jiaming a maker of spiritual products.
Even nowadays, oil painting is
still considered by many as the mainstream category, so Wang
Ningde’s photography could well escape our attention. Absurd
realism is characteristic of Wang Ningde’s artwork. Wang has his
figures close their eyes, and this simple and common facial
expression is used as a concept throughout his work. Eyes truly
serve as a device that links two worlds. Any average person can try
to close eyes and test how you feel. Wang Ningde discovered the
simple truth that eyes can be either closed or open. Consequently,
half pictures in this world will be eyes open and the other half,
eyes closed. In fact, Wang believes that many significant moments
in one’s life were spent, or are happening, at the time when eyes
are closed. That is why he has chosen the other half.
For Wu Gaozhong, his love towards
those insignificant yet warm and substantial things is inevitable.
Nobody could intervene with his choice as it is the artist’s
self-orientated free will. However, Wu’s love is not the sweet
type. He has used “pig’s hair” as medium to wrap and display his
pets. Those originally ordinary forms become unfriendly and
inaccessible at once under the new identities Wu gave them. Should
the works size be increased, the shocking viewing experience will
definitely grow into sheer terror. The large-scale
installation Fist
made by hair and
wood-carving gives the viewer creepy uneasiness. Wu’s another
series is photography about decaying organic matters, in which he
chants eulogy on fungus and captures splendor in the perished and
rotten. Appreciating “blue mountains and green water” emerging from
the rotten organic matters during the rainy season in China, is
anything but spectral for him.
Xu Yihui is a representing artist
at a time when Gaudy Art became popular in Chinese contemporary art
history. He seems to have indulged himself in the old role. The
artist is the same, only the context has changed now. In his work,
a Chinese astronaut doesn’t forget to read the supreme instructions
even when landing on some planet, alluding that politics controls
people’s minds ideologically even in no man’s zone. Xu Yihui didn’t
clearly state his attitude and standpoint. What he did is assemble
groceries from modern life and show them openly. Gaudy Art is
actually a bitter irony masked in silliness.
He has transformed the irregularly
occurring noise signals into lifeless intestines, organs and blood
stains. The pictorial patterns look as even and arresting as
wallpapers; nevertheless, the inanimate rotten intestines mixing
with bloody terror sneak into our memory, hinting at the
intermingling of violence and politics. The 10 minutes video
loop Information No. 1 is
played nonstop on the electronic device, uniting the visual and
imaginary in one space.
July 25th
2008
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