My Generation: Young
Chinese Artists
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach CA
On View Through October 11
Article by Cathy Breslaw
www.cathybreslaw.com
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| Chi Peng Sprinting Forward 4 C-Print 55" x 81" 2004 |
It is a remarkable fact that
the work of contemporary artists can be a powerful tool for understanding a
culture, its’ people and their challenges. Having visited China several times
for both business and pleasure, this exhibition made me realize how little is
understood by visitors, only scratching the surface of a complex country that
since the end of Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, continues to undergo
tremendous industrial, technological, political and social change. My Generation: Young Chinese Artists,
curated by Barbara Pollack, represents the work of over 25 artists who were
born after 1976. Pollack, an arts journalist
covering the Chinese art scene since the 1990’s, interviewed over 100 young
artists from every region of China who have grown up in relative freedom and with
opportunities of a rapidly expanding economy. They have been exposed to a global
dialog and art movements via the internet and by historical comparison, a
liberalized education at China’s art academies. The show comprises a range of
painters, video artists, installation artists, photographers, and artist
collectives addressing issues of alienation, identity, the effects of rapid and
largely unregulated industrialization, and massive movement of the population
from country to urban landscapes. In artist Ma Qiusha’s video From No.4 Pingyuanli to No.4 Tianqiaobeili,
2007, we learn about being a product of the ‘one child policy’ China enforces.
In the video, Ma Qiusha stands alone in front of the camera in face to face confessions
to the viewer. Through stories told in a dispassionate manner, she describes
her conflicts with personal, parental and societal pressures to be successful
as an ‘only child’ while holding a razor blade on her tongue. Her piece is a psychological
portrait as well as a performance. Video
Flying Blue Flag by Hu Xiangqian is a light-hearted somewhat humorous yet poignant
story of a young man
soliciting votes to be leader
of his town, showing residents business development plans, ‘bribes’ with
cigarettes, while listening to the advice of elders. Though it is a ‘false’
election on his part, folks think he is actually running for office and he
manages to receive many votes. This video could be a parody on an election in
any democratic country where the vote is up to its’ citizens. Painter Qiu Xiaofei’s Utopia, an oil on canvas 118” x 157”, (2010), portrays a headless
statue rising from a cluster of empty high rise buildings, desolate and devoid
of people, commenting on the destructive and alienating aspects of the ‘new’
urban landscapes. In keeping with alienation of the urban landscape,
photographer Chi Peng’s Sprinting Forward
4, 2004 is a C print of a naked young man in the distance, standing on
stairs with his back to us, in front of a large complex of glass buildings
while red birds swirl and fly above.
Another photographer Liu Di’s series of Animal Regulation C-Prints,
deal with conflicting relationships between nature and human society in
the urban environment generated by
rapid industrialization. Fearless, a humongous
complex mixed media wall tapestry 124” x 253” (2012), by Xu Zhen, contains a
combination of Chinese imagery as well as western images of political cartoons,
a portrait of Nietzsche, and the head of Medusa, pointing to influences of the
west on China as well as the west’s preconceived notions about China’s cultural
identity. These descriptions are only a small selection of the over 100 works
contained in this richly constructed exhibition. These young artists are technically
sophisticated and are among this generation’s celebrated Chinese artists
helping to define and converse, and to wrestle and identify with the challenges
and progress being made in a globally aware culture with multi-dimensional
concerns.
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| Liu Di Animal Regulation No. 4 C print 23" x 31" 2010 |
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| Qiu Xiaofei Utopia oil on canvas 118" x 157" 2010 |
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