The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos and
installations from the DSL Collection, one
of Europe's largest collections of contemporary Chinese art.
City as a multifaceted object and concentration of human fates has
always being an inspiration for the creative processing.
Untitled
sculpture of Liu Wei is “an abstract city that emerges from mountainous
terrain. This chaotic and futuristic city… evinces the accelerated development
of China’s social infrastructure and, at the same time, its potential
destabilization and dystopian devastation.” The sculpture is made of cut books
covered with layer of dust emphasizing the idea of destruction.
Liu Wei,
Untitled, 2011
In a
coloristic resonance is a work of Zhang Huan called Sansara. Here media plays
very important role. The portrait of Buddha is created from ash of incense and
offerings (благовония и подношения) collected at Buddhist temple and sorted by
color and fraction. The author quotes “Sansara”: “Buddha is a person, a person
is Buddha.” Huge size of canvas 4 x 2,5 m enhances the impression of the
universe behind you.
Zhang Huan,
Sansara, 2007
Yang
Jiechang continues the theme of city with his Drifting Metropolis. The painting
is made of 8 pannels in style of traditional calligraphy and painting. It “embodies
the idea of an idyllic and timeless reality. A city in which all is quiet, a
protected world where everyone can find peace of mind and where everything –
religion, morality, ideology, politics – has disappeared, and with them the
conflicts and wars that tear apart contemporary society” i.e.to me it is a
place where life stopped.
Yang
Jiechang, Drifting Metropolis, 2009
Grapes
installation from 10 Qjing dynasty stools by Ai Weiwei. New object mutated from
ordinary thing.
Ai Weiwei,
Grapes, 2008
I cannot
imagine Chinese art without bright colors. One of my favorite installations is God
Pound by Pend Hungchi placed opposite to Sansara. Diverse statues of
gods were thrown to recycling centers by gamblers who did not get help from
them. Childish approach to supreme forces. But here they are bright and lively.
Pend
Hungchi, God Pound, 2006
Exhibition takes place at Jewish Museum till January 11, 2015
Evgeniya Frolova
IAD Level 5
Evgeniya, Thank you for the post! I really enjoyed reading it. The most interesting thing for me from these information is Liu Wei's sculpture "Untitled". I payed my attention to this artwork and i would like to read more about the process he used for create such sculpture. It would help me in future for study and work. This amazing sculpture brings overwhelming mood,because of the gray color and material he used. It seems that he showed empty after the end of the human lives. Thanks to the author for the post and interesting information about the artists from the “An Estranged Paradise. Chinese contemporary art from the DSL Collection” Exhibition.
ReplyDeleteDaria Slushaeva, Level 4