Welcome to 'new' Chinese art
surreal_ravi
By Batool Mahmood
Batool Mahmood visits the on-going exhibition of contemporary Chinese
art in Paris.
Bursting with vitality and a newfound dynamism, the exhibition "Alors,
La Chine", showing appropriately enough at the Centre Pompidou Museum
of Modern Art in Paris, showcases the diverse work of over fifty
'new-age' Chinese artists. The work on show has been culled from a
multi-disciplinary field that encompasses video installations,
sculpture, architecture and plastic arts, amongst others.
While the exhibits do not give us an in-depth perspective of each
genre, they allow the viewer to see how the rapid pace of development
within China has influenced the local art scene. Many of the mostly
young artists have studied or traveled abroad and this, combined with
the influences of a changing society at home, has resulted in a rich
body of work that incorporates new thoughts and ideas and is
reflective of the changing times.
Entry to the exhibition is through a floor to a ceiling arch by Xu Tan
(b.1957), who lives and works in Shanghai and gives us a taste of
things to come. The installation is called: 'To build the arch of
Happiness' and is constructed entirely of polystyrene boxes that have
been strung together vertically to create 'walls'. The ubiquitous
plastic boxes are used in China as lunch boxes, doggy bags, take-out
carriers, etc. and symbolize everyday food. The installation conveys
the message that in the new 'throw-away' culture, things as banal as
these boxes are artificial and pollute the environment.
The exhibition occupies a large hall with suspended screens,
sculpture, paintings, etc., and traditional rattan floor stools are
strewn across the ground in front of the installations that allow the
viewer to sit down and absorb the oft-changing scenes. The arrival of
digital technology and the affordability of video cameras have given
Chinese cinema a creative boost and have enabled viewers to catch a
glimpse of life within the country. One large screen, for example,
shows a train journey and the mass migration of people to places where
they can find work. This particular train is carrying people from
Sichuan, which exports its labour to the cotton growing area of
Xinjiang where work is available in the cotton fields and workers can
earn ten to twenty times more than they would at home.
Many of the people travelling together from small villages have never
seen a train before except perhaps on television. The camera pans
across a crowded compartment and then moves outside the train to take
in the plight of two young girls who have been separated from their
village companions. Desperate to enter the compartment, the girls
plead with the guards on the platform to let them get on. The guards
refuse, pulling people out of the choked interior so that they can
close the doors. The girls persist and finally manage to climb in
through the windows like many others.
The camera follows the girls into the crammed compartment and an
invisible narrator starts to ask the passengers a variety of questions
such as: "Why are you going on this train and what do you think is the
most important thing in life?" The answers are revealing. Many of the
passengers are women who are leaving behind husbands and children.
Money figures prominently in their response but there are other
reasons, such as a woman who is making the journey to find her husband
who has not contacted her in two years.
Another woman has been duped into marrying a man several years her
senior and is now returning home with her son after a visit to her
parents. She says she has not told her parents that she is depressed
and desperately unhappy. This is because she doesn't want to cause
them distress and as for herself, she now lives only for the sake of
her son. Family ties, respect for elders and the spirit of sacrifice
are very strong in China and this comes across again and again. People
say they are willing to leave home and make this sacrifice for their
children just as their ancestors made sacrifices for them.
The quest for money and material things has become paramount in a
society that has discovered consumerism and is racing to acquire all
the trappings of the modern age. This is a recurring theme in most of
the installations that deal with modern-day China. The installation by
artist Shi Jinsung, for example, is called "Sweet Life" and is made up
of a long plank of glass that has been suspended from the ceiling. On
this, the artist has placed dozens of everyday objects of desire, such
as perfume bottles and calculators that have been coated in thick
globs of golden caramel (hence the title of the installation) so that
their shape is somewhat deformed. The artist's message is clear:
Material things provide fleeting pleasure and are not here to stay.
Another installation by Xing Danwen (b.1967) highlights the problems
created by the 'throw-away' society that we live in. His
floor-to-ceiling installation called "Disconnexion" is made up of nine
square photographs showing the discarded parts of computers whose
'internal plumbing' has been disemboweled. One square shows green
electronic circuit boards, another broken keyboards while yet another
shows old mobile phones. The photographs have been taken in the
province of Guangdong in the south of China where "e-trash" from
Japan, Korea and the United States is sent to be recycled.
Here every village has houses that specialize in recycling one
particular component and the family lives amidst this trash. The
artist asks the viewer to ponder on the millions of new products that
are bought every day, the millions more that are thrown away without
thought of the ecological nightmare that is then unleashed in one
corner of China.
But while life remains tough in China's villages, the cities have a
different story to tell. An architectural model of Peking, for
example, highlights the rapid development that has occurred in the
large cities. The installation occupies 50 square meters of floor
space. At its center are the 'Forbidden City' with its tiered red and
gold pagoda and the Tianamen square. Surrounding these landmarks are
the new Plexiglas buildings and modern homes; the skyline now dotted
with high-rise apartments and commercial buildings whose modernity is
accentuated by illuminations that shine through the Plexiglas.
The buildings represent the face of a new China, opened to the forces
of globalization, its run-away economic growth causing a mass rural
exodus to the cities that attract capital and investment from around
the world.
And while the old city wall still encircles Peking, the modern city
now dominates with only a few vestiges of the old remaining. There is
a sprinkling of the gray brick houses of yesteryear that have not yet
been pulled down, huddled together haphazardly, fostering a sense of
community and a way of life that is perhaps being lost. We get a sense
of the frantic pace of construction that is taking place with large
open construction sites and an evolving landscape of football fields,
roads and artificial lakes.
The new dynamism that is now prevalent in the fabric of life, is a far
cry from the restraint and austerity of the Cultural Revolution. Then,
everything was dedicated to the glory of Mao and we are reminded of
this while looking at an exhibit of Mao memorabilia. Arranged in a
long, glass case are statues and everyday objects such as plates,
school bags, mugs and clocks as well as badges, posters and stickers
all bearing the likeness of Mao. It is a reminder of a time when
'real' art went underground but was not snuffed out completely and has
now re-emerged stronger than ever.