[Views] Bourgeoisified proletariat exhibition
发起人:art-pa-pa  回复数:39   浏览数:6683   最后更新:2009/12/18 11:06:21 by art-pa-pa
[楼主] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 12:04:02


Bourgeoisified proletariat
2009.9.10-9-14
Shanghai Songjiang Creative Studio
 


A contemporary art exhibition gathering works by more than 40 Chinese artists and art organizations to be held for the first time in Songjiang (Shanghai).

Since 1997, a curatorial team composed of ten artists has organized numerous art exhibitions in China and abroad. In September 2009, they will present Bourgeoisified Proletariat, a large-scale independent show featuring major works by more than 40 Chinese artists and art organizations. Featured in the exhibition will be new productions embracing media including installation, video, film, sculpture, performance, painting, photography, and site-specific projects. The title “Bourgeoisied Proletariat” is inspired by a letter Engels sent to Marx in 1858, and the exhibition seeks to interrogate directly the ways in which lived political and economic conditions have affected the works of these specific artists during the past decade.Through this event, the curatorial team hopes that these artists and organizations, widely considered among the most important of their generation in China, will gain more attention. In this moment of financial crisis, visitors will have the opportunity to examine what serious artists in China are currently focusing on as well as the overall changes in the contemporary art system in China. As participating artists, the music bands Top Floor Circus and The King of… will give a ninety-minute concert on the evening of the opening.

Exhibition space
This exhibition will be presented in over 5000 square meters spread between Space 1 and Space 3 of the newly opened Shanghai Songjiang Creative Studio. The Songjiang Creative Studio is a new multi-function complex of 40000 square meters dedicated to the promotion of art and composed of exhibition spaces, artists’ studios, cafés, an educational center and even an ancient house imported from Suzhou.

Catalogue
Bourgeosified Proletariat will be accompanied by a full catalogue, published by Office for Discourse Engineering and revolving around the forty participants’ responses to an eleven-question survey about contemporary art practice in China

Details and contact:

Curators: Yang Zhenzhong, MadeIn, Liu Jianhua, Shi Yong, Shi Qing, Jin Feng, Jin Feng, Huang Kui, Alexander Brandt

Artists: Wang Xingwei, Hu Jieming, Zhu Yu, Yang Fudong, Kan Xuan, Geng Jianyi, Liang Yue, Zhang Peili, Zhang Qing, Tang Maohong, Zhang Ding, Li PInghu, Zhou XIaohu, Alexander Brandt, Xiang Liqing, Zhou Tiehai, Wu Shanzhuan, Zhang Hui, Wang Jianwei, He An. Liu Wei, Chu Yun, Liao Guohe, Shao Yi. Yu Ji, Xiao Xiong, Chen Xiaoyun, Yang Zhenzhong, Shi Yong/Seth Joseph Augstine, Jin Feng, Ji Feng, Shi Qing, Huang Kui, Liang Wei, Hu Xiangqian, Polit-Sheer-Form, Borges Libreria, ShanghArt Gallery, Top Floor Circus/The King of, Small productions, MadeIn, Yangjiang Group

Opening Time: September 10, 2009, Thursday, 16:00
Exhibition dates: September 11 - 14, 2009, 10:00 – 18:00
Venue: Shanghai Songjiang Creative Studio, 6000 Shenzhuan Road, Songjiang
(in Chinese: 上海松江沈砖公路6000号,近R9洞径站)
T: +86 21 62775358 / F: +86 21 62273400

Email: Vigy Jin vigyjin1020@gmail.com / Alexia Dehaene guanchaoqun@yahoo.com.cn

Bourgeoisified Proletariat would like to thank:
Shanghai Songjiang Creative Studio, ShanghArt gallery, Art-Ba-Ba Contemporary Art Community, Hipic, Hangzhou JNBY Ltd. Art Center and Office for Discourse Engineering for their support.
Media support: ArtSpy website

[沙发:1楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 12:11:59

The floor in the entrance of the exhibition space is filled with orange ping pong balls...pick one up and read what's written on it: the name of a virus, brain diseases and other, as a fatal jinx. Altogether 200 kind of diseases are popping out from this installation ready to contaminate you.
















[板凳:2楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 12:16:12


Liu Wei's TV shape installation is composed of boxes and parts of wood furnitures assembled and cut in a very sharp and precise way, as an anatomical dissection. 












[地板:3楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 13:28:32


Shi Qing's work consists in a church like sauna. A wooden house with chairs and an altar...hot steam is diffused in the room. A carnal purification.
















[4楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 15:52:15
2nd Floor



The most common disease in the capitalist class: diabetes. Wang Jianwei prepared for everyone large pills... made of bronze.
 







[5楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 16:18:13


Beijing artist, He An colored various cardboard boxes using a simple pencil, most of the surface was covered except a few words or details here and there.













[6楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-17 18:23:43


Yu Ji found an underground printing company and printed dollar bills with Obama's face and his dog's face... 1000 bills all together.
The video presents a recording of the printing process.












[7楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 10:46:03


Li Pinghu's installtion is composed of a cage where all kind of kitchen ustensils are hung, in the middle an iron dragon made of saucepans.













A marble bloc sitting on a concrete pedestal presents a statement written with golden letters. 








[8楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 11:07:37



Two works by Zhang Peili:

An installation where two bones hit each other, a video projected on the wall presents the environment as filmed by a small video camera placed in one side of the bone.













Next door, another video by Zhang Peili. All the windows in his exhibition space were obstructed except one. He shot the landscape as seen from it with objects flying one after the other, and projected it under the actual window.










[9楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 11:32:01
3rd Floor



This video features deaf-mute people in suits, having a discussion, as in a political or business reunion...












[10楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 11:39:21



ShanghART gallery displayed a coffee corner where visitors could relax... On the wall a neon light with the sentence "So tired, I don't know, let's try, maybe...?" A hint to the contemporary art scene crisis?












[11楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 11:53:22
Liang Yue, Oh Beach, short film, 30', 2009
Featuring Lu Chen and Chen Xiaofeng

Two young people decide to go to Xiamen by the sea to have fun. Once overthere they realize that the sea is the same everywhere...













Next door, a wall filled with Liao Guohe's crazy paintings...













 
[12楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 12:10:52


Jin Feng (old) met an erudite farmer who entirely wrote a "Das Kapital". He published his book and invite various famous professors of Shanghai to debate on this topic












[13楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 13:19:29



Shi Yong threw his partner, Augustin (standard American, coming from Los Angeles, non Chinese speaker) in a construction site out of Shanghai for one week.

The American artist couldn't leave the construction site for this period, everything depended on the communication between him and the non English speaking leader of the construction site... A video and photographs show the reactions and living conditions of Augustine and the workers.






















[14楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 13:39:27
 

Two boxes filled with lucky stars made of paper that visitors can take away...









 
[15楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 13:50:14
Zhu Yu, "Bourgeoisified Proletariat" 's Cartography, pictures collection, 2009

Zhu Yu complied, wrote, draw all the possible information on this exhibition particularly on the works such as the size, dimensions, material and authors of the works, etc. A large scale project for an exhibition that presents more than forty artists...













 

[16楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:08:08


Polit-Sheer-Form, TOFU, installation/event, 2009
A white room, as a piece of TOFU, was built in the middle of the exhibition space. Polit-Sheer-Form artists then hire workers to demolish the walls with axes.
















[17楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:13:54


Alexander Brandt produced a platform with desk and German flags as a political background...
Monitors diffuse a video where the artist himself, wearing a typical communist-like outfit, makes a speech about Capitalism in Germany.












[18楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:16:06


Squares of colored cloths are hanged on the wall forming the word "Exploitation" ....










[19楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:18:53


A series of b&w photographs featuring two girls making small talk...with a secret hidden in the back...













[20楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:20:50


A series of three collages by Zhou Tiehai which presents various desserts, tofu, cakes, etc...








[21楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:24:38


A narrative, surrealist video of 35 min features a marginal character travelling around Shanghai.










[22楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 14:33:29


Zhou Xiaohu hired two people to have a fight in the street and get arrested (blood bags were fixed in their clothes to make more effect). A video camera hidden in their bag shot the whole scene including the questioning in the po:ice station.












[23楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 15:14:26
Four works by MadeIn:

MadeIn, Metal language, installation, 2009
Sentences coming from Newspaper caricatures are written on the floor with metal chains shining under the light.

MadeIn, We live here, there is no life, only business, installation, 2009
An installation with a mannequin pushing a shopping trolley....

MadeIn, It should appear faster than it disappears, installation, 2009
Two lovely girls light cigarettes to be smoked by a fancy machine.

MadeIn, Love in fact results from an excess of dopamine in the brain, installation, 2009
An installation consisting in a house made of polystyrene boards, similar to a prison, with a disco light ball and game balls in it....














































[24楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-18 15:39:08


An installation where a fish net with rice paper with texts from the Capital are displayed on the floor. Then a football team played on it...
















[25楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 12:17:28


A video of an oil company advertisement where the artist keep repeating "There will be some, they will all have some"









Everyday life objects from the past are displayed on a table and surrounded by their painted representations, under the title "They still look beautiful"
























[26楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 12:50:50


A painting installation by Zhang Hui: a painted black wall recreating the moonlight, with a lamp (turned off) in front of it to accentuate the illusion effect. Next to it, a column with painted bricks.












[27楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 12:58:55


A video where the artist presents sentences, written with the typical Chinese red characters used for propaganda, in various public spaces. The video is made of a series of photographs shown one after the other at a fast pace...










[28楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 15:48:19


A sound installation plunging the visitors into the environment of Beijing's small streets...Speakers are displayed on various parts of a dismantled tricycle.


















[29楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 15:53:18


A giant bicycle with a small cupboard at the back, as a "thought's ruralisation" machine....









 

Xiang Liqing's works focus on the perception of the space...













[30楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 16:00:27


A painting by Wang Xingwei with a man and a woman on a "toilet" boat.









Shao Yi's work in collaboration with the Small productions... A series of photographs of people drunk... Red eyes, euphoric or weary expressions...












[31楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 16:26:18


Long shots of women making an expression, keeping the same attitude for a few minutes as an emphasis of their beauty....










[32楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 16:34:35


A scene, with various props and objects as a theatrical background: a boat, a peacock and a vase unceasingly pouring water. A game without any directions.
















[33楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-21 16:41:04


Damaged cars' hoods are hanged accompanied with a sound of an emergency braking...



















A video by HU Xiangqian where he gets a sun bath becoming darker and darker.








[34楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-24 17:12:38
Pictures of the venue:






















[35楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-24 17:23:01
Small productions works...


































































































































































































































[36楼] art-pa-pa 2009-09-24 17:27:55
Opening concert!!!

Top Floor Circus band.

 












 
Young artists group, Shuangfei, intervention....


















































[37楼] art-pa-pa 2009-12-18 11:06:21
Selected comments and critics from the Chinese version of Art-Ba-Ba:


Let's talk about Songjiang exhibition from a rational point of view

[Author] Art's daughter in law 2009-9-14 3:15:54

The general impressions on Songjiang's exhibition was a lot of disappointments, very few great works, and many bad ones, some of them were so bad that they were hard to forget! Many people salivated over this seemingly lively, interesting show, and there were many reasons for that: just look at the list of the curators, considered as Shanghai’s most active artists, not to say that two heads are better than one! With such a so-called ‘elite’, this exhibition should have reached a superman level! Also, participating artists that were selected are among the leading ones in the Chinese contemporary art scene, How many years of prestige! There were many reasons for these expectations. Aside from that, with the financial crisis, pure intellectual innovations, that were even more expected, were much too few! Therefore, the so-called old artists confusingly appeared in this exhibition as slippery and negligent, the so-called new artists also lost their enthusiasm and become ordinary! Some artists tried to ‘retrofit’ themselves, but these attempts didn’t lead to any way out and the creativity was still very weak, perhaps it didn’t make sense to them as well. Let’s talk about these works below:

The worst work, Huang Kui – They still look beautiful. So many paintings of objects from the past and many objects displayed, apparently in some sort of configuration, both ready-mades and their representations were used, a mental masturbation! Is that what we call an artwork? In fact it’s extremely easy, Huang Kui painted everyday life objects from the past, and presented the objects themselves. I don’t know what you want to show us? I really can’t think of anything, there are no place for any possibilities, no special technique, no concept, no wisdom, the paintings are bad. This is a typical attitude where it’s not enough for the artist to be stupid, he has to take viewers for fools as well.

Number 2, Shao Yi -- ≥80mg/100ml, photographs of people’s expressions after drinking, ≥80mg/100ml is the standard quantity of drunkness in the road rule, but these drunk people don’t have anything to do with traffic, the artist only use this title as a mental masturbation: typical way of finding a trick and make a work out of it.

Number 3, Yang Zhenzhong – Fatality, an installation popping ping pong balls with 200 hundreds kind of disease written on it, typical situation where the material explains the technique, but why ping pong ball, what does it has to do with the diseases? It’s too far-fetched, a complicated work that turn very dull! A typical homework.

Number 4, Liang Yue -- Oh,Beach, 30 min. Two young people go to Xiamen for the holidays, they want to go to the beach to have fun, but afterwards they realized that a beach is a beach, there’s only an infinite sea. There’s nothing new but a classic beach landscape, aside from the beach there’s only a beach. I really admire your courage! I’m speechless. I’m too lazy to criticize.

Number 5, Chen Xiaoyun
A marble stele with english and chinese engraved words, placed on a block of concrete is displayed in the exhibition space! “No matter [something, something], at last we already belong to the proletarian class”! Inscribed in the rock as solidified history. A fear that is impossible to look back on, deeply carved in the stone. I’m a bit angry, make such a thing from this topic is too shameful!

Number 6, Unknown, a person lies under the sun until his skin become as black as an African, I remember the work but forgot the name of its author, I was a bit surprised after viewing the whole work: the artist doesn’t like to study, such an old idea, don’t you know that in the 90’s many Western artists already used this technique, suntanning bible, suntanning traces, suntanning skin, aside from that, what does a suntanned skin has to do with you? You thought that filming your head would be a good work?

Number 7, Jin Feng (old): human testimony and material evidences are his invariable practice. He finds an idea, then brings the concerned person and object in the exhibition space and presents their story, that’s what is all about, this is his work! There’s no modification at all, no consequences. These fresh stories when used by Jin Feng become very dull! If you think about it, if there weren’t all this media fuss around his blog, would these works still be effective? I can’t help to talk about Jin Feng’s lazyness, I mean, he thought that he found a certain trick that could make him big, but it doesn’t work this way, this method is much too easy, most of his art are based on imitation. You, Jin, hurt people so much! You declare that you are a leader! But your voice is powerless, there are some other people of your kind who are wilder and who would shut your mouth up, the most important is that the work itself is so weak that it can’t sustain your laziness. When you saw one of Jin Feng’s works it’s not necessary to see the others, they have no value at all! This time, his work was even worse, you should have placed this Kapital’s author into a glass box, and ask him to read his book, that way, this work would at least have had a little visual effect!

Number 8, Yang Fudong: this work aside from having a beautiful pictorial effect, doesn’t have anything else, viewers attracted by the artist’s fame make a lot of effort to find some interpretations, but is there anything else aside from disappointment, this work is really bad! It shouldn’t be.

There are many other bad works, I will just write those for today and more tomorrow. Everyone is welcome to comment.


Art-Ba-Ba web-friend said:

[Reply 3] guest 2009-9-14 10:39:34
I agree with the number 1, Huang Kui’s work, it is indeed very bad! But I don’t agree with number 8 Yang Fudong, although it is an old work, there’s still a certain standard!

[Reply 4] guest 2009-9-14 10:56:00
Let’s talk more about it…
He An, Hu Jieming, Alexander Brandt, Kan Xuan, Zhang Ding…

[Reply 5] guest 2009-9-14 11:42:40
Although Yang Fudong’s and Chu Yun’s works are simple, I think they are still very artistic, I particularly think that they shown a lot of confidence to present these works in a group exhibition.

[Reply 6] guest 2009-9-14 11:48:57
Yang Fudong’s works are always mystified.

[Reply 7] guest 2009-9-14 11:56:38
The author of this post is absolutely right, there are basically no good works, except the “toilet” oil painting by Wang Xingwei, as for the other works, if you take the name and title away, they will all look the same, it is a disease of tricks productions.

[Reply 8] guest 2009-9-14 12:06:02
This is contemporary art that looks like contemporary art.

[Reply 9] guest 2009-9-14 12:32:42
The Small Productions look like a creative bazaar.

[Reply 10] guest 2009-9-14 12:55:21
The author of this post is right, this exhibition was in fact a small gathering held during the ShContemporary art fair.

[Reply 11] guest 2009-9-14 13:29:13
The worst work was the one by Yangjiang group, the author of this post is half-wrong about Number 8.

[Reply 14] guest 2009-9-14 13:49:55
Chinese contemporary art is all about tricks, if not in China how would this be contemporary art.These are all pirated copies.

[Reply 15] guest 2009-9-14 13:57:28
Number 9, Hu Jieming: a work made of a few old-like pictures on a wall? This is a typical way of using one’s own seniority. Aside from enjoying everyday life pictures of two young girls playing, there’s nothing else, what a swindling!
Number 10, Chu Yun: I really admire Chu Yun’s courage, showing two cardboard boxes filled with lucky stars! There’s nothing to say about it.
Otherwise, I just read an introduction on Yang Fudong’s work, I think it’s not bad at all, but such a text was missing in the show, which made it difficult for the viewers to understand it, misunderstandings were understandable.

[Reply 17] guest 2009-9-14 14:40:42
Chu Yun always plays along.

[Reply 18] Art’s daughter in law 2009-9-14 14:58:10
Number 9, Hu Jieming: a work made of a few old-like pictures on a wall? This is a typical way of using one’s own seniority. Aside from enjoying everyday life pictures of two young girls playing, there’s nothing else, what a swindling!
Number 10, Chu Yun: I really admire Chu Yun’s courage, showing two cardboard boxes filled with lucky stars! There’s nothing to say about it.
Otherwise, I just read an introduction on Yang Fudong’s work, I think it’s not bad at all, but such a text was missing in the show, which made it difficult for the viewers to understand it, misunderstandings were understandable.
The nine works above are so bad that they are hard to forget. It is very strange that these artists are famous figures of the contemporary art circle. How come these works are so low? Don’t take viewers for fools, and don’t pretend to be apostles, this year the Emperor’s new clothes can’t cheat people, he will only cheat himself!

Below, I will talk about the common works that I don’t feel to watch and to analyse.
Number 1, Li Pinghu: an empty work that only has a visual effect, which is on top of that very outdated, creatively poor.
Number 2, Polit-Sheer-Form, one can feel that these wise guys were just having fun, here again we can doubt about the goal of Polit-Sheer-Form! To be intellectual? It doesn’t seem to, they might also feel confused. Was is to realize a work together? People completely different can collaborate to produce great works, I doubt about it.
Number 3, Jin Feng, a long and tedious video! The work is abrupt and lacks of imagination, the control of the image and editing are very dry, one can feel that Jin Feng was in a hurry, he wanted to play with the pictorial effects, and wanted to create some poetic background, he also wanted to present a certain philosophical concept, this is very difficult, it seems there’s no way out to this work.
Number 4, Wang Jianwei, it shouldn’t be like that, such a good artist doing such a thing! It’s very irresponsible.
Number 5: Kan Xuan, at least this work failed.
Number 6: Yu Ji - the work looks very complete and fine, he printed some dollars changing the faces, a very clever and boring idea.

[Reply 19] guest 2009-9-14 15:34:37
If artists’ weakness could be revealed, it means that this exhibition was very successful.

[Reply 22] guest 2009-9-14 20:16:09
You should look at the facts, without being too egocentric. You should start from the concepts, without talking about people. You should see possibilities of hopes, without being pessimistic. You should respect the “ecological ethics”, you shouldn’t denigrate everything.

[Reply 24] guest 2009-9-14 22:20:33
Don’t always look at art or artist according to a single standard.
You should develop your eye to see more controversial issues.
The attitude of the author isn’t bad, just a bit too extremist. Radical.

[Reply 26] guest 2009-9-14 23:35:19
When you look at art, you can think a bit more of what the artist thought before doing his works, why did he use this kind of expression, you shouldn’t always observe things with a certain trained standard, otherwise as a viewer, your appetite will be very limited, you will only think that stir-fried pork is good.

[Reply 29] guest 2009-9-15 0:44:08
Rationally, it is like that, but these artists hardly analyse things in a systematic way, it is very difficult to see the link of a work before and after it has been realized, it is often an idea that has been pondered and held in the brain for ten days to half a month, this kind of thinking process doesn’t have any logic, and the work remains superficial.

[Reply 35] guest 2009-9-15 11:30:15
It seems that the author of this post still talks about the stimulating aspect of the works on a sensitive level, he lacks of a multi-standards understanding. He doesn’t use the language produced by the works to analyse them. He simply sees if has some feelings for the work and apply it as a standard, aren’t these kinds of feelings based on the tendencies of China’s fashion? There’s nothing such as completely good or bad.

[Reply 42] guest 2009-9-15 14:19:10
This kind of comments doesn’t show any analysis on the art system or art history. This is the result of being poisoned by the academic education. This kind of comment looks too much like teachers giving marks to students.

[Reply 47] guest 2009-9-15 22:22:12
These last few years, the various chaotic faces of contemporary art gave to the audience a habit of observing works in a rough, superficial way, leading to a lot of misunderstandings. They abandoned the identity of the observer. Therefore, the understanding of these works become unrelated to the individual existence, as well as unrelated to the anxiety and impatience coming from the fast development. The judgement (there’s already no more observation left) is only based on the sluggish experiences. Such an identity becomes very doubtful, one can says they consciously renounced the on-site feeling.
For the author, didn’t we make the same mistake as the audience described above. When facing a big examination should we keep declining it or keep facing it, no matter what, we should all keep analysing things, this is not compelled by circumstances this is the attitude we should have, because we are making art. You need many reasons to work: you have to deal with methods, confront results (the so-called system), or even more important, the effective parallel between result and reason. If you can’t do that, then it means that you renounce to be present.

[Reply 49] guest 2009-9-15 22:53:55
Recycling is artist’s sluggish request. But each artist’s aims are different, and would create a distance with other professional fields. So these issues question whether it is time or not for this field’s focus and standard to change. A long time is needed to change this field standard so it could fit viewers expectations and requests.

[Reply 51] guest 2009-9-15 23:33:04
Answering to reply 49: the problem is how many artists and viewers are aware of this? How many old wines are poured in new bottles, or new wines poured in old bottles? What do to when facing this kind of impasse? Insult? Or try to find a trick in a constructive way, no matter big or small, no matter if it leads any where, even though it is a wrong one, it’s better than nothing. However, this exhibition drew quite a correct portrait of the contemporary art situation in China right now, even though the model was a bit blurry, it wasn’t that bad.

[Reply 52] guest 2009-9-15 23:46:36
In the contemporary art area, the concept of “audience” isn’t important at all (this is an obvious fact that has been already proved), what is the audience, are they the “people” who come to see the exhibition? Are their identities important, who do they represent? Do they represent the majority? Do they represent the society? In fact, “the contemporary art audience” (the specific one) - equivalent to the “cultural audience” – only determines an “individual”, a group of people made of “free entities”. Art has to aim at this wide audience made of various individuals, is that possible? Except if someone proceeds with the tradition of the past, and deal with contemporary art as if it was a cultural movement. But this question should be asked to young people from our generation and from the next generation, are they interested in movemement? If not, what are they interested in, or in other words, what is the probability of creating new thoughts in this world nowadays?
--- this reply is meant for the friends of replies 47 and 49…

[Reply 53] guest 2009-9-16 0:19:47
New thoughts will be produced by the “individual awareness”, this thing that has never really existed, is one of the main question in the contemporary art development, let’s accept the light of “individual awareness”, it is useful for art, for the civilization.

[Reply 54] Art’s daughter in law 2009-9-16 0:30:55
Let’s talk about the works that look like good works, and those which are easily misjudged by people.
Number 1, Xu Zhen,
It seems that there aren’t many people who dare to talk about Xu Zhen’s work, even though there are some discreet debates and good critics on it, particularly among artists from Shanghai, why that? It seems Xu Zhen gave Shanghai’s artists a deadly poison, that has to be periodically cured, this is a little bit strange. Xu Zhen has a lot of good works, of course he also did a lot of bad works, in this exhibition they are not good and not bad, they are bad when compared to his previous typical works, and good compared to the other bads works in the show. This time, Xu Zhen’s work at best was an attractive facade, leaving the viewers dizzy, and shocking the artists, the fact that it could have such an effect is also Xu’s talent, the concept of dopamine in this weird display was drowned without any trace, the viewers could only see the shell of a thrill. This work could be compared to another work displayed in Long March Space. When in Beijing, people from all over China in and out of the circle all praised him, he was at the center of this attractive ‘facade’. This time, forgetting himself, Xu Zhen only left the ‘facade’ in the exhibition space.
Many people were disappointed to see the taste of the artist lost in the shadow of this ‘facade’.
Although the works were produced under the concept of MadeIn, it was still obvious that the standard was still within the solo exhibition held in ShanghArt gallery, however we can’t be too severe with artists, particularly when they had to realize so many works in such a short time, it is difficult to find two persons that are worth to be respected in China.
Number 2, Yangjiang group, Zheng Guogu, it seems that many people are criticizing this work, but most of Zheng Guogu’s works shouldn’t be judged according to their display effect, it shoudn’t be seen in a standard way, you have to carefully ready the documentation after the exhibition to actually understand it, this time the link with the subject of Capitalism was quite obvious.
Number 3, Zhou Xiaohu, Shi Yong. These two artists’ works can be discussed together, one can see that they try to change of forms, you can also call that an “experience”, it is difficult to express an idea in a couple of works only, you need a series of them to understand it. This type of works focusing on the society are quite clear, but are also easy to confuse the artist.
Number 4, Chen Tong. Chen has always been very meticulous. This time it seems he wasn’t doing a work but accomplishing something.
Number 5, Zhang Peili, Geng Jianyi. These two artists’ works can be commented together, both works still belong to their working system, the ideas are quite old, they look outdated, no enthusiasm, but no deception either, they look like works realized by teachers, and reflected an academic rigour.
Number 7, Shi Qing. Shi Qing is a “machinerist”, this time his work has two meanings, one is using the machinery language to produce something, the second is making a work that look mechanical. This is how his work was this time, of course if you haven’t seen Xu Tan’s sauna room before, then this would prove to be one of his best works.

[Reply 58] Art’s daughter in law 2009-9-16 1:49:17

Using reply 52, 2009-9-15 23:46:36:
You are too extreme when talking about these issues, and there are too many paraphrases, in the contemporary art field, everyone knows that art isn’t meant to satisfy people’s standard. Artists all know this basic notion, but many artists still can’t get rid of the standard of a “special audience”, [here “special” audience means art connoisseurs]. How many artists change the form of their works but not their content? Everything is done according to experiences from the past or others’ past experiences, what is even more scary is that artists get confused by all these things, that’s when “Men are blind in their own cause”, you don’t have to satisfy the audience’s standard, but sooner or later works have to been evaluated, then we can judged whether they are efficient or not, innovative or not.





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