Month: July 2020

Categories
Contemporary 当代

Contemporary | Lei Benben – Phone photographs

Lei Benben is an artist with strong consciousness, in other words, lei ben ben takes a simple and linear approach to think about her art style.

Lei Benben , Showder on the water, 2005, photography

lei ben ben used to be a dance teacher. To her, since dancing was very much challenged by other commercialized art formats, it somehow makes dancing a purer and soulful expression. One day, Lei Benben picked up a camera by accident. Camera’s view to the world and the way it captures images amazed her. So she gave up her dance career, and turned for another challenging profession.

Lei Benben , The Passion of Life, 2005, photography

Lei Benben started her photograph career by using camera lenses on mobile phones. The style of her works is rather low key: the objects in her images give us the sense of joy with melancholy. The color of her images seemed to be purified to its original luster by the soft lights of a cloudy day, touching and vibrant.

Wisdom and beauty photographs

lei ben ben photograph works are random taken. Lei Benben is an artist with linear logic and her characteristics determines that her works would not be flourished with splendid colors. However, her works are full of straightforward wisdom and beauty. The underlying interpretation of social morals can be sensed throughout her images. In addition, the art of dance plays a significant role in Lei Benben’s photography; it makes her works delicate and sensitive, even if the themes of the works are somehow heavy or serious. The element also contributes to the permeating, gentle and subtle appearance of her photography without overloaded contents.

Lei Benben , Present, 2012, photography

Lei Benben’s mobile phone photography concentrates on story-telling rather than expressing opinions of displaying certain attitude. It is very similar to man traditional Chinese poetries that praise on nature phenomenon: the works only care about what is happening, not what would happen afterwards.

lei ben ben ‘s Hair is missing

Lei Benben , My Hair is missing , 2007, photography
Lei Benben , My Hair is missing , 2007, photography

A bald head could be a special code for certain groups or certain characters. For example, the bold head is commonly associated with prisoners, patients (those who are losing hair as result of chemotherapy), Buddhists, Punks, Skin Heads or artists. In this case, bald head actually becomes identity or the symbol of some groups with special characteristics. Some would obtain this special code or symbol to gain certain recognition or at the least the proof of an identity. Since the identity is such a hot topic in today’s society, the image of “bald head” drew Lei Benben’s attention and let her into a contemplative process to find her proof of identity. In the contemporary society, Bald Head is often linked to negative things.

Lei Benben , My Hair is missing , 2007, photography
Lei Benben , My Hair is missing , 2007, photography

Sometimes, it is considered as a sign of politics, representing a class of people who are not respected politically or socially. In reality, the image of “bold head” has in fact been worshipped as an alternative subject by many. More and more people start to use the image to gain recognitions or identities. Along with other popular idols or distinctive personalities, the appearance of “bold head” makes the character identifying an even more intriguing and complicated process.

The institute of Zoology and Botany for Lei Benben

Lei Benben , The institute of Zoology and Botany , 2007, photography

“The institute of Zoology and Botany” is the work that Lei Benben has been expecting the most. The images attempt to create contrast and examine how life reacts and strives for survival under suppression. In this case, the forcible use of flash lights provides the unusual and surprising power for subject’s compulsory behavior. Because Lei Benben is not a scholar type of artist, she once again diverted from a serious and heavy topic by employing her romantic and sentimental nature. That’s why I believe that this photograph series is smart and poetic.

Lei Benben , The institute of Zoology and Botany , 2007, photography
Lei Benben , The institute of Zoology and Botany , 2007, photography

From:

http://www.leibenben.com/EnIndex.aspx

https://ocula.com/artists/lei-benben/

http://www.artnet.com/artists/lei-benben/

http://www.artlinkart.com/en/artist/wrk_sr/d32atwt/2dcdsCq

For more Chinese art: Abgstage01. 

Categories
Contemporary 当代

Contemporary | Ni Youyu – Multifaceted artist

Ni Youyu is not just an artist; he is an observer, a researcher and a collector. In his spacious, industrial Shanghai studio, one encounters antique shards of ceramics, curious objects found in flea markets, stacks of notebooks and works in progress. Commonly overlooked found objects, many of which the artist discovered while traveling, are scattered around the room.

Ni Youyu working in his studio in Shanghai, 2013     Photo: Shasha Liu

Ni strives to create a space where ideas historical and contemporary can intersect. Educated in traditional Chinese ink-wash painting, he draws from the rich and deep traditions of Song and Yuan Dynasty ink paintings, when the ancient artists pursued the unity between man and nature within the limited space of paintings. The Song and Yuan pieces emphasized the sense of historical grandeur and rationality, making a strong impression esthetically with their precise of brush strokes. Following Chinese radition, Ni studies and emulates the work of old Chinese masters as a daily ritual. However, he does not simply mimic these ancient artworks in his own work. Rather, he immerses himself in them to extract their essence and purposely does not include ink paintings on paper in his own work. Ni’s practice is equally informed by post-1960s conceptual art, such as the Italian modern art movement Arte Povera (1967-1972).

Installation view of Ni Youyu's personal exhibition
Installation view of Ni Youyu’s personal exhibition “Brief history” Shanghai Art Museum Ni Youyu solo exhibition “Site of short history exhibitions”

Ich the damaged relics Ni You yu

lch (2013), made from found objects, involves 100 small pieces of damaged and eroded relics of Chinese figurative sculptures of people, Buddha and animals, dating from the North Song (960-1127AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912AD) that Ni collected on research trips over several years. After making molds from these ancient pieces, the artist cast soap sculptures from them. Exhibited as though they are artifacts, the sculptures juxtapose the temporality of soap with the lifespan of hard stone antiquities. In doing so, they raise questions about change and permanency, exposing both materials’ essential fragility.

Ni Youyu, Zilch, 2013, 100 soap sculptures
Ni Youyu, Zilch, 2013, 100 soap sculptures

As part of the work, viewers are invited to become participants and “adopt” one piece of the soap, which they are free to use however they like. In exchange, they are asked to submit a photo of the object in their home. Their treatment of the soap becomes a reflection of their understanding of the sculpture’s function and its status as both a utilitarian and an aesthetic object.

Ni Youyu , Zilch Bubble, 2013, detail
Ni Youyu , Zilch Bubble, 2013, detail

The Song dynasty

Since 2011, Ni has been working on a series of paintings that exclusively use black matte and gold paint. Inspired by paintings from the Song dynasty and historical Japanese screen paintings. Sense of history, their color combinations and the precision of the brush strokes. Ni chose these colors in order to create a concrete yet illusionary visual effect. The contract of the gold semi-gloss against the black matte yields a contradictory quality. lending each scene a realistic yet dream-like aura.

Ni Youyu ,Song Dynasty inkwash painting in detail
Ni Youyu ,Song Dynasty inkwash painting in detail

Hoping to avoid solid lines, Ni developed a special method that uses pressurized water to wash away layers of paint. For each painting, he repeats this process several times; the result is a surface that appears worn, as though eroded by time. This effect is a similar to the visual device used in Song and Yuan Dynasty ink paintings. Ni creates scenes of waterfalls, landslides and flood-damaged landscapes by applying water to the painting’s surface. This interaction – between water both represented and actual – imbues the work with a sense of ingenuity and contradiction.

Ni Youyu, Big Waterfall II detail

Galaxy the experience of childhood of Ni Youyu

Ni’s work Galaxy (2008-) re-examines and critiques the trend of costly large-scale art productions .that may be impressive but possess little meaning or content. In Chinese, the phrase “to pound the money” refers to spending a large amount of money without giving it much thought. Ni physically enacts this saying. repeatedly hammering coins he has collected from around the world until their surfaces are flat enough to paint on.

Ni Youyu, Galaxy, 2008 – 2012, Installation view

Building upon his preexisting interest in miniature painting, Ni trained himself to draw ink paintings on the coins.which he flattens to approximately one inch in diameter. As though representing “a galaxy of human knowledge,” these paintings depict a range of subjects, from landscapes to anatomy. This project furthers Ni’s exploration of the relationship between deduction and addition. In destroying the coins’ surfaces, he removes their monetary value. However, this process of destruction is also generative: it transforms .the coins into art objects, endowing them with a new value within the art market.

The inherent labor-intensive quality of his artworks requires the artist’s full attention and repetitive action. Ni often gets into a deep meditative state while in the process of creation. lending these works a sense of ease and grace. making his artistic practice an effortless endeavor.

From:

https://theartling.com/en/artists/ni-youyu/

https://www.niyouyu.com/

http://www.guan-dian.org/ni-youyu

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/216753

For more Chinese art: Abgstage01. 

Categories
Contemporary 当代

Contemporary | Yuan Yuan – Architectural paintings

Chinese artist Yuan Yuan is known on the international art scene thanks to his distinctive paintings, focused on architectural subjects and executed with impeccable technique. They convey a unique atmosphere, that is materialized in the poetic of memory. 

Yuan Yuan, Confessionary II, 2013, oil on linen
Confessionary II, 2013, oil on linen

Zheijang hometown

Yuan Yuan born in 1973 in Zhejiang province and studied in the Oil Painting Department of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Where he gained a graduation in Fine Arts in 1996 and a Master in Fine Arts in 2008. When YuanYuan was studying there, while Chinese society was still very conservative. The Academy was “like a sunroof, always open for us” . And he benefited from a library well stocked with foreign periodicals. Currently lives and works in Hangzhou and Berlin.

His work is heavily influenced by traditional Chinese painting, which she studied when he was a secondary school student. Also, the painter was inspirited by Western artist such as Richard Long (Land Art) and Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Conceptual Art).  

Yuan Yuan, Breakfast, 2013, oil on canvas.
Breakfast, 2013, oil on canvas.

YuanYuan subjects are mainly interiors and these are based on real places, with some imaginary elements added. Sometimes he also manipulates architectural details and as a result the scenes . He depicts seem to lie somewhere between reality and illusion. 

All Yuan Yuan’s paintings share a sense of abandonment, offering just a glimpse of their former glory.

The artist said

“Ruins give us a sense of security, they are living spaces without .A sense of pressure so you can do whatever you want. Abandoned places are also public, meaning that you may enter and visit. This is similar to the process of a viewer who is looking at an artwork. I am trying my best to identify the residual traces left behind – not so much what the place has now.But rather what this place used to be for a long time, which no one can take away and cannot be seen. “

Yuan Yuan, A Home for Home, 2012, oil on canvas
YuanYuan, A Home for Home, 2012, oil on canvas
Yuan Yuan, Fairy Dream Liner 3, 2008, oil on canvas
YuanYuan, Fairy Dream Liner 3, 2008, oil on canvas

Paintings composition are highly structured and orderly, dictated by the geometric details of the   architecture depicted.  what sets Yuan Yuan’s paintings is the incredible detail with which he describes every individual surface within the composition. In particular, She is fascinated by mosaics and patterns of tiles, whether on floors, walls, or lining pools and showers.

He is able to play with an infinite variety of hues within the same color scheme to produce a stunning effect. The atmosphere often feels humid in his paintings, with water in pools or dripping from .the ceiling or decaying walls, and the mood is melancholy. In order to achieve the effect of wet surfaces, he applies several layers of diluted pigment. A classical Chinese painting technique.  

Yuan Yuan, Meteoric Water, 2011, acrylic on canvas
Yuan Yuan, Meteoric Water, 2011, acrylic on canvas
Yuan Yuan, Swimming Pool II, 2010, oil on canvas
Yuan Yuan, Swimming Pool II, 2010, oil on canvas

At first glance, Yuan Yuan’s paintings seem devoid of any human presence. This is not quite true. She wants to represent people by depicting traces of human activity, which heighten our curiosity. 

Thus, She also conveys a sense of passing time, of transition and history. 

Yuan Yuan, Mirror, 2011, oil on canvas
Mirror, 2011, oil on canvas

For more Chinese art: Abgstage01. 

***

Categories
Contemporary

Contemporary | Lin Yilin through performance

Biography

Born in Guangzhou in 1964, Guangdong Province, China, Lin Yilin studied sculpture at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1987. Lin Yilin through performance found his way to think about present.

His poetics are expressed through urban interventions and site specific performances. It draws on China’s socio-economic conditions, political landscape and cultural experiences; reinvents the relationships between communities and environments in a globalized context.

Lin Yilin through performance uses his experiences as an immigrant to the United States as a starting point for many of his works.

Lin Yilin during a performance

Safely Manuevering across Linhe Road

Lin became known for his installations made with stackable bricks inserted in an urban context, thanks also to his involvement in the Big Tail Elephant Working Group, which founded in 1990 was fundamental for a reflection on the state of China’s urban development. Lin’s best-known work is in fact “Safely Manuevering across Linhe Road” (1995), where the artist moved a pile of bricks across a main road in Guangzhou for ninety minutes. He built a brick wall on the side of the road and then removed it row by row and reassembled it in the middle of the street. Repeating the same gesture, he brought the wall across the street. This performance turned a stable wall into a moving wall and also stopped heavy traffic.

safely manuering
Lin Yilin performing “Safely Maneuvering across Line Road”

Symbolically, the brick for Lin is linked to architectural construction and destruction, it also indicates urbanization and social transformation. The artist intervened on a public site with his body and represented the rapid urbanization which we easily forget despite being very evident.

For other contemporary artists: Contemporary

From:

Apersonaldiary

Guggenheim

Artsy

Categories
Contemporary

Contemporary | Sun Xun’s paintings and woodcuts

Biography

Sun Xun was born in 1980 in Fuxin and studied at the China Academy of Fine Arts. Sun Xun’s interest in traditional art forms such as paintings and woodcuts prints is reflected in the craftsmanship. That characterizes his animated films.

Born in an industrial mining town in the north-east and raised in the period following the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The artist is influenced by the side effects that this movement continues to have on topics such as history. Culture and memory. He is interested in how historical events are perceived and recalls the representation of citizens by public bodies and the media.

His work

Sun Xun’s paintings and woodcuts explores concepts of past versus present. personal versus political in symbolic and surrealist ways, often choosing to use animals and insects as the main characters of the story rather than people.

He is considered one of the most talented emerging artists in China, his practice combines craftsmanship with stylistic experimentation not limited to any of the media. Blurring the lines between drawing, painting, animation and installation, his work incorporates a wide range of materials. Usually his films are then presented in engaging settings, creating a memory theater for the visitor, full of realistic and fantastic iconography.

Sun Xun xilography
The Time Vivarium – 71, 2014
acrylic and ink on paper
paper: 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)

To produce Time Spy, the artist and his team sculpted more than 10,000 wooden blocks.then inked and digitally digitized them to create the animation cells.

Sun Xun’s painting and woodcuts are in constant dialogue with art history. In fact he talks about his work in close relation to Albrecht Dürer and his engravings. The works were compared by Sun Xun in recognition of the influence of this German Renaissance artist on his own practice.

Sun Xun the time vivarium
The Time Vivarium – 20, 2014
acrylic and ink on paper mounted to aluminum
paper: 59 x 98 1/2 inches (150 x 250 cm) 
framed: 59 7/8 x 99 1/4 x 1 5/8 inches (152.1 x 252.1 x 4.1 cm)

For other emerging artists: Contemporary

From:

skny

Guggenheim

Slam

Categories
Contemporary 对话

Contemporary | Chen Ke sad girl

Chen Ke is born in 1978 in Tonjiang, China’s Sichuan province. She’s graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, where artists had many opportunities to explore their emotions and instincts. 
This free environment, alongside cartoons, fairy tales and comics, helped her to build her identity as an artist.
After participating in numerous national and international exhibitions, she worked on a variety of media, including painting, sculpture and fashion design.
Chen Ke is recognized as the most representative artist of the New Generation of Cartoon of China.

Background

Various images of little girls, representing the core of human nature, flow like a thread through the works of Chen Ke.
Although references to the art of comics are evident, when one analyzes her works in more detail, they become visible elements of style of Western masters such as Caspar David Friedrich, as well as the influence of traditional Chinese paintings, creating an exciting tension. 
Being eager to experience Chen Ke often surprises her viewers. Not only does she produce her own paper, she embroiders canvases with beads, but she also applies oil paint to stretch cotton fabrics that are popular in her childhood days.

Chen Ke sad girl

Chen Ke is considered the most representative artist of the new generation of Chinese artists. Her melancholic paintings, which express the loneliness of growing up as an only child, show digital images made of bright and colorful light from her kaleidoscopic and dazzling imagination.
That’s why the artist says: “My characters are somewhat sad, isolated and powerless and this is exactly how I feel sometimes. My art is as real as my spirit.”As classical artworks of Chen Ke, almost every piece of work shows a little girl with a round nose, who is lost in depression, limited to herself, living in an unreal space, and seems to keep a distance from the human world.

Chen Ke
Like porcelain paintings

Usually, the sad girl takes up the center of the whole artwork. With the full expression of the blank as well as the grain like porcelain paintings, the artist fully shows the opposition of the reality. A reality that buries the audience in the waves of the sense of unknown sadness. The sad girl seems to be jumping between the virtual world and the reality, which makes the audience lost in the endless loneliness and long distraction.

Chen Ke
Chen Ke and Beijing

In her first two years in Beijing, she felt lonely and what she could do was to paint and put her moods into the painting. She believed this is the reason why many people think that the girl in her painting was actually her self. And the girl in her painting grew up with the growth of the artist. She believed her art appeared from her daily life, so she hoped art could enter the daily lives of people. 

Chen Ke and Fashion

She thought fashion and art have no differences at the top point. She has cooperated with many fashion brands. In 2008, Fendi invited Chen Ke to join the Fendi special handbags Baguette Anniversary commemorative edition series; she designed a handbag for the series. In 2014, Chen Ke designed for the Vogue FNO series to celebrate the ninth anniversary of Vogue magazine.

Chen Ke

Fonti:
Artsy
Wikipedia
Perrotin

Categories
Contemporary

Contemporary | Cao Fei a new media artist

Who’s?

Cao Fei, daughter of a famous Chinese sculptor, was born in 1978 in Guangzhou, China. She currently lives and works in Beijing.
She is one of the most innovative young Chinese artists on the international scene. In his installations and videos, Cao Fei investigates the expectations and dreams of the young Chinese generations. Cao’s works are an outlet for invention, but behind her playful jokes lies an uncertain world of unfulfilled desires.

Combining popular aesthetics with a documentary vision and references to surrealism, in his works Cao Fei moves strong social criticism, reflecting on the inconsistencies and hopes of his country. He uses photography, video and digital media in innovative ways to expose the dramatic changes in his daily environment – since 1992 – and in his high economic growth, urban development and the rapid globalization of China focused on its native region of the Pearl River Delta.

Biennali and triennali

Cao Fei’s works have been exhibited in several international biennials and triennials, including the Shanghai Biennial (2004), the Moscow Biennial (2005), the Taipei Biennial (2006). And the 15th and the 17th Sydney Biennial (2006 and 2010), the Istanbul Biennial ( 2007), Yokohama Triennale (2008) and 50a, 52a and 56a Biennale di Venezia (2003, 2007 and 2015) where he presented the work “La Town”.

Cao Fei
“COSplayers”, 2004
Cao Fei

His fascination with local youth subcultures during his training period is reflected in his early photographic and video works.
In “Cosplayers” he explored the alienation and escape tried by young disaffected and displaced people. Who expressed themselves as fantastic game characters. The interaction between the virtual world and the real one, utopia and dystopia. Body and technology remained important themes for the artis

RMB City 2007

Fascinated by the potential of the virtual world, not only as a strategy of escape from reality. A virtual world that is as a real tool of online urbanization, Cao Fei founded RMB City. Using the famous computer platform Second Life Cao Fei realize her avatar China Tracy. The alter ego of the artist: Sexy, feminine, with dark hair and Sailor Moon style has given shape to a virtual art community. Lives and operates in an environment that embodies the unique characteristics of Chinese cities.

Cao Fei

RMB City states Manifesto: “New orders are born, so they are new, strange wisdom” 1-A statement appropriate to the ‘setting of the work, the virtual platform Second Life, in which users, through their chosen avatars, can buy and exchange objects, build urban structures and interact with other avatars in an artificial utopia that is also part of the apocalypse.

“Asia One”, 2018

Cao Fei says «Technology has developed beyond imagination»
For “Asia One” commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, Cao visited some of China’s most advanced industrial facilities. Including the world’s first fully automated sorting center in Kunshan, in Jiangsu Province. For this project, a hyperreal vision of the near future shifted its focus from the present to our collective future by examining the effect of technology on human relationships.

Cao Fei
“Nova”, 2019

On the occasion of her solo exhibition Blueprints, at the Serpentine Galleries, Chinese artist Cao Fei has produced two new limited edition artworks. 
The two limited editions Nova 15a and Nova 18a are two film stills from Cao Fei’s HX’ research project. The film tells the story of a computer scientist working on a secret international project that attempts to turn humans into digital mediums.

Cao Fei

A failed attempt to use his son as a test case results in the young man becoming lost in cyberspace, a spectre haunting the past, present and future worlds that continuously interact and overlap throughout the film. By mining the history of her immediate context, Cao Fei takes us on a ‘retro-futurist’ journey that goes beyond chronological time and hovers between reality and fantasy. 

Fonti:
Palazzo Grassi
Portfolio
Guggenheim

Categories
Contemporary 当代

Contemporary | Wang Ruilin – “Dreams”

Surreal animal sculptures by Wang Ruilin 

In the serie titled “Dreams”, Chinese sculptor Wang Ruilin creates surreal animals with a particular  features: on their backs – and sometimes on their antlers – these creatures carry monumental elements of nature like lakes and mountain cliffs. It’s like a modern animal-version of Noah’s Arc without people.  

“Dreams Ark1”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Ark1”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Floating1”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Floating1”, Wang Ruilin

Wang Ruilin is a talented Chinese sculptor, born in 1985 in Anshan, in province of Liaoning. He graduated at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2005 and  actually lives and works in the same city. 

Rui Sculpture Life

His sculptures are heavily influenced by traditional Chinese art and mythology. Indeed, his life changed at the age of four or five, when he encountered . a painting of a horse by the artist Xu Beihong (1895-1953). A traditional Chinese painter, primarily known for his ink paintings of horses and birds. Ruilin became obsessed with these vigorous animal and has ever since identified with it.

Horses became one of the main characters of Ruilin’s works, resulting in the series “Horse. Play”, where pours the lively power of the animal in different static postures, creating significant tensions in the sculptures. 

“Horse. Play”, Wang Ruilin
“Horse. Play”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Horse”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Horse”, Wang Ruilin

“Dreams” series are almost life-sized copped sculptures .And the artist describes their creative process as digging deep into his heart and excavating works that originally exist from various experiences.

About his works, Ruilin says:

“Pursuit of Dreamscomes from my imagination, which is the balance between nature and abnormal state. Animals in Pursuit of Dreams may not be lifelike for I wish to inject different spiritualities and. spirits of the east and remind people to focus and admire on . other individuals who are the same or even more beautiful besides themselves only. Pursuit of Dreams-ark is the work I was inspired in the moment of 2012 . when people were concerning on how to be saved and I make ark to save not only rivers and mountains of human. In the space of impermanent compounds, what we pursue may not exist really and we can only feel the value and force. of life when the doom is set. Just as the big fish that I compare to ark, it carries mountains and rivers with life and . observes the world with the soul”

“Dreams Ark2”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Ark2”, Wang Ruilin
Wang Ruilin working on “Horse. Play
Ruilin working on “Horse. Play”

Eastern-classical art also influenced Ruilin use of color.In particular he loves Chinese flower paintings . for their rich, bright and cool colors. For the artist eyes they seem deep, pure and full of profoundness and uniqueness. 

The series “Dreams” was protagonist of ART Beijing in 2014.  

“Dreams Yak”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Yak”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Floating2”, Wang Ruilin
“Dreams Floating2”, Wang Ruilin
Wang Ruiling creating a sculpture
Ruilin creating a sculpture

For more Chinese art: Abgstage01

***

Categories
Contemporary 当代 纵观艺术 艺术家

Contemporary| Zhou Jun – The Thick Red Line

Zhou Jun is a contemporary conceptual chinese photographer. He was born in Nanjing Province in 1965 and graduated from Nanjing Normal University in 1990.

His work revolves around construction sites and the relationship between urbanization and the preservation of ancient cultural inheritance.

Zhou Jun
Zhou Jun

Zhou Jun’s technique

The artist is best known for his series – Scaffoldings; Bird’s Nest project; The Red and the Black – featuring Chinese cities in black and white with overlays of red streamers wrapped around under-construction buildings. Zhou Jun uses large format film cameras to produce negatives, which are scanned, digitally manipulated and printed to produce large unframed photographic works. Built environment is the subject of Zhou’s work in an analysis of China’s rapid and sometimes brutal redevelopment. Created since 1992, his photographs mainly treat the conflicting relationships between Chinese traditional architecture and contemporary buildings while continuously challenging the symbolic nature of the red color.

9th 2007, 2007, Digital C - print, 120 x 190 cm/180 x 286 cm
9th 2007, 2007, Digital C – print, 120 x 190 cm/180 x 286 cm
Expo 2010 Shanghai - China Pavillion, 2009, Digital C - print, 120 x 150 cm/220 x 180 cm
Expo 2010 Shanghai – China Pavillion, 2009, Digital C – print, 120 x 150 cm/220 x 180 cm

Building progress

The contradictions that are presented when trying to preserve the past in a time of China’s unprecedented economic growth underpin the work of Zhou Jun. During the last thirty years the most striking feature of China’s re-development has been its city construction. Demolition of whole villages to make way for high-rise development is a regular occurrence. The lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics saw massive building works and although it transformed Beijing into a modern city entire neighborhoods were ‘moved on’ in the name of progress.

Bird's Nest No. 2, 2006, Digital C - print, 50 x 60 cm/120 x 150 cm
Bird’s Nest No. 2, 2006, Digital C – print, 50 x 60 cm/120 x 150 cm

Zhou Jun’s work embodies a quality of yearning for the past to some extent and this is seen in his photographs of historic buildings from Beijing. He is acutely aware of the expansion of Chinese cities and the loss of traditional architecture. It is the loss of Chinese culture in the pursuit of globalisation.

Phoenix Ancient City, 2011, Digital C - print, 120 x 150 cm/180 x 220 cm
Phoenix Ancient City, 2011, Digital C – print, 120 x 150 cm/180 x 220 cm

Seeing red

The color red has significance in Chinese cultural memory as it is used for ceremonial occasions such as weddings but it also represents revolutionary communist ideology. It is a reminder of the turmoil of the recent past. Because of this, the wide variety of perspectives of each person means completely different feelings and reactions are aroused by the color red. The partnership between the black and white photographs and the red sections of scaffolding allows the audience to produce their own meanings.

“Hanging Red”, 2009, 120 x 150 cm, Archival Inkjet Print on Fine Art Paper
“Hanging Red”, 2009, 120 x 150 cm, Archival Inkjet Print on Fine Art Paper

A word from the author

“The three decades of development China is experiencing – building to a crescendo with the Olympics – are unparalleled in history. The colour red, which I use to highlight specific parts of the photograph, can elicit different responses in people from different countries or cultures – at times, it can even have opposite meanings for people. I want my work to be interpreted differently by people depending on their response to the symbolic meaning of red. In this sense, the work has the potential to reveal international perspectives to common subject matter.”

Zhou Jun also creates sculptural works using porcelain and other materials, always mantaining his distinctive style and his conceptual structure.

A
A “wounded” porcelain vase, surrounded by scaffoldings

For more informations about Zhou Jun’s work: https://www.redgategallery.com/Artists/Zhou_Jun-photography/index.html

or: http://www.artlinkart.com/en/artist/wrk_yr/dbabrws/1eccAtt/2006

Categories
Contemporary 当代 纵观艺术 艺术家

Contemporary | Li Xiaofeng – Porcelain Heart

Li Xiaofeng is a Chinese sculptor and fashion designer, born in 1965 in Hubei. His unique work consists in wearable porcelain clothes.

He graduated at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA)’s Mural Department, and began his activity as a muralist. Then he began specializing in sculpture in order to explore new concepts and expressive forms to apply to the Chinese contemporary artistic scene.

Li Xiaofeng
Li Xiaofeng

His sculpture-clothing project is truly original, both for the selected material and the idea of wearable “pieces of armor” that recall Chinese traditional works.

Li Xiaofeng’s creative process

Li Xiaofeng researches and collects fragments of ancient Chinese porcelain recovered from archaeological excavations, dating back to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties: he models and polishes them and punctures them, then sews them together on a leather undergarment through a silver thread, creating a “porcelain fabric”. His meticulous work is a bridge between past and present and a sharp reflection on the concept of culture. 

porcelain dress 1
These dresses are fully wearable
porcelain dress 2

Li’s Rearranged landscapes

“Chinese culture” is the basic breakthrough point in Li’s works: he feels a sense of mission for its study and he channels it all in what he calls “Post Orientalism”. Landscape was always a major theme in his large number of paintings created in the past but, instead of simply copying like some other contemporary artists, he had always the urge to rearrange it, in a dynamic dialogue with history. 

This extract explains the reason why Li Xiaofeng’s calls his porcelain clothes “rearranged landscapes”:

“Since the time when it was the Mongol Yuan capital Khanbalik to the present day, Beijing has initiated its largest excavation projects of all time and, like a blue snake that has been hibernating for a millennium, the city is now stirring and shedding its old skin. It greedily emerges through the towering buildings, twisting free from the historical sediment of its ancient civilization. Blue-and-white porcelain shards that represent this civilization are unearthed in large quantities at the same time. These blue shards, bathed in the sunny skies of socialism and caressed by the contemporary cool breezes blowing from the west throughout the capital, assume a bewildering array of postures as fashion items entering the new century!

Xi Liaofeng at work
Xi Liaofeng at work

Among his works are women’s dresses, t-shirts and men’s jackets. His first piece in wearable porcelain fragments was “Beijing Memories”, a Mao suit.

MIlitary uniform
MIlitary uniform

Lacoste’s porcelain shirt Li XiaoFeng

In 2010 the world-renowned brand Lacoste commissioned Li Xiaofeng a porcelain polo shirt for men and women for the Holiday Collector series. Unfortunately, a problem occurred: the PRC prohibits the export of ancient artifacts, including old porcelain shards.

Despite that, the artist did not give up and realized the porcelain himself, with the crocodile’s logo attached, and tore it apart only to recompose it into a Polo shirt, one of the most expensive and exclusive items ever sold by Lacoste.

Lacoste's porcelain shirt-sculpture
Lacoste’s porcelain shirt-sculpture

The artist also released a limited edition polo shirt, choosing blue and white fragments depicting the lotus flower and drawings of newborns from the Kangxi period and the Qing dynasty. The lotus flower represents rebirth and purity while newborns represent fertility. In that period the mortality rate among children was high and this type of decoration was in great demand in the hope of being a blessing for children.

“Porcelain shards” polo shirt

Li Xiaofeng’s main expositions

2019Dreaming of Crafts of the Future: Mongyudowon Unfolds, 11th Cheongju Craft Biennale 2019, Culture Factory C, Cheongju
2018Cracked – Porcelain, Red Gate Gallery
 2D vs 3D, Red Gate Gallery
 798, We Are Back, Red Gate Gallery
2017Red Gate on the Move, Red Gate Gallery
 Contemporary Dialogues Between Fashion and Art, Zhu Zhong Art Museum
 The Silk Road and Celestial Clothes, Taimiao Art Museum
 Fusion – The International Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing
2016Red Gate: The Next 25 Years, Red Gate Gallery
2015China: Through the Looking Glass，The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
20145th Tanwan Ceramics Biennale, Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Tanwan
 ST. Start International exhibition of the Chinese Contemporary Ceramic Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing
20137th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2013 Korea, Icheon CeraMIX Creative Center, Korea
2011Ming to Nirvana, Red Gate Gallery
2010Head On, Red Gate Gallery
 Width Contemporary Art Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing
2008Virginia Miller Gallery, Miami
 Asian Contemporary Art Fair, New York
2006Sculpture, Pickled Art Centre
 Consumption Times I, Ha Te Art Centre
2005Diversity and Construction, Beijing
2004X Yard, Beijing
 Beijing International Art Camp
2002CAFA Graduates’ Exhibition

For more informations about Li Xiaofeng’s work: https://www.redgategallery.com/content/li-xiaofeng

or: https://www.artsy.net/artist/li-xiaofeng