spot_img

Shattering Glass, Shattering Earth

spot_img
spot_img

Latest News

spot_img

Chairman Mao famously said, “Women hold up half the sky”. If by “sky” he was in some small way also referring to the “Chinese art world”, then unfortunately the saying holds a little less truth.

Historically, and very much still today, the art world in China is predominantly a man’s one. That is not to say however that China does not have female artists, nor that it lacks exceptional ones who give the men in their field a run for their money.

To celebrate International Women’s Day earlier this month, I have chosen four contemporary Chinese female artists from China and Hong Kong who are worth knowing, as well as one to watch closely in the future.

In 1989 there was Xiao Lu (b.1962) who sent shock waves through the art world, as well as her own art, when she fired a pellet gun at her work “Dialogue”, two hours after going on display at the China Avant-Garde Exhibition. Already a highly sensitive affair, this exhibition was a seminal point in Chinese art history, marking a U-turn in modern Chinese art. From static to dramatic in only an instant, in the longer term the artwork became entwined with political events yet to unfold in Tiananmen Square in June of that year. Xiao Lu claimed however, “We consider it a purely artistic incident… as artists we are not interested in politics”.

From shattered glass to squishy architecture, Yin Xiuzhen’s (b.1963) miniature “Portable Cities”, fashioned from colourful scraps of cloth, bulge out from the inside of ordinary suitcases. Like pimped up pop out cards, each city represents the individual’s world that travels with them from one place to another, sealed from view to outsiders. Yin creates a poignant link between home and identity by recycling the clothes of ordinary urban citizens who populate the cities she creates.

But travelling need not always be literal. In 2009, Cao Fei (b.1978) opened her “RMB City” to the public on a virtual scale, built in the online world of Second Life. People can enter the city as avatars and exist like ordinary folk, buying property, paying real money for advertising and attending special events hosted in the virtual metropolis. On the one hand RMB City reflects China’s urban explosion with its never ending boundaries; on the other hand it is an exploration into how creativity can forge bridges between the real and the virtual.

Back in the realms of the more traditional mediums is Irene Chou (1924–2011), a leading exponent of the New Ink Painting movement in Hong Kong, in which artists explored the boundaries of traditional Chinese ink painting both in medium and method. Chou’s deep grounding in traditional methods defined her abstract expressionist paintings which ooze with vigour and boldness, depth and vibrancy.

But best of all is Geng Xue (b. 1983). Fairly new to the block she beats all the girls, and all the boys. Porcelain is her plaything, a material so intrinsic to China yet treated by the artist in a welcomingly refreshing way. Her animation “Mr Sea” illustrates a famous Qing dynasty tale from Pu Songling’s “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”, acted out by blue and white porcelain puppets. Every aspect of the material has been carefully considered and played upon, from its shiny translucency softened through animation, to the resonating sound when one puppet taps against another. There is both sensitivity and horror, malleable wet clay and brittle shattered porcelain. A preview of “Mr. Sea” is available on YouTube while Geng Xue is already exhibiting across three continents; as she goes from strength to strength she’s my artist to keep an eye on.

- Advertisement -

Local Reviews

spot_img

OUTRAGEOUS!

Regional Briefings