We Chat: A Dialogue in Contemporary Chinese

Art
CHEN Wei, GUO Xi, JIN Shan, Pixy Yijun LIAO,
LIU Chuang, LU Yang, MA Qiusha, SHI Zhiying,
SUN Xun, Bo WANG
March 26, 2016 July 3, 2016

Table of Contents
1

CHEN Wei
Biography
Themes & Techniques
4
GUO Xi
5
Biography
Themes & Techniques
6
JIN Shan
Biography
Themes & Techniques
8
Pixy Yijun LIAO
9
Biography
Themes & Techniques
10

3
3

7
7

LIU Chuang
Biography
Themes & Techniques
12

11
11

LU Yang
Biography
Themes & Techniques
14-15

13
13

MA Qiusha
Biography
Themes & Techniques
17

16
16

SHI Zhiying
Biography
Themes & Techniques
19

18
18

SUN Xun
Biography
Themes & Techniques
21

20
20

Bo WANG
Biography
Themes & Techniques
23-24

22
22

Important Concepts
25

Me Generation
25
Family Ties
Gender Roles and Intimate Relationships
27
Urbanized Landscapes
28
Additional Resources
29
Books & Articles
Videos
30

26

29

CHEN Wei ()
Biography

Born in 1980 in Zhejiang Province, China, Chen

Wei has exhibited extensively both locally and
internationally. The photography/installation
works of 31-year old artist Chen Wei illustrate an
intricate imagination fascinated with the
eccentric and fanciful pursuits of early science,
mathematics, alchemy, philosophers and
madmen. Taxidermy, broken mirrors, melted
wax, bats, bees, deserted bedrooms, and found
objects become the artists tableau. With a
meticulous attention to details, Chen Wei creates
mesmerizing scenes that leave the viewer
puzzled by their intricate narrative, fantastic
visual impact and odd beauty. In some of the
works, the sole human subject resembles an
absorbed mad scientist or passionate poet, adding feelings of isolation or
estrangement to an already bizarre scene.
Unlike many of the first generation of Chinese contemporary photographers whose
photographs are technically documentation of performances and installations, Chen
Wei and his contemporaries are giving the voice back to the medium and forging
their idiosyncratic languages that are informed and inspired by western masters like
Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman, Gregory Crewdson, etc.
Chen Weis work is characterized by elaborate photographic scenes, featuring an
assortment of fond memories choreographed into a surreal studio like setting. The
artist takes inspirations from modern Chinese literatures and makes many sketches
from which he works to physically construct the envisioned scene. Each of Chen
Weis existing series takes a new subject and location as a starting point, from bus
shelters to singular figures set in a dilapidated room. Chen Wei belongs to a new
generation of Chinese contemporary photographers who forgoes traditional
documentation of the surroundings. They take a new focus on the subject and

idiosyncratic languages, an approach shared by Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman and

Gregory Crewdson.
Chen Wei was awarded the 1st Asia Pacific Photography Prize at ShContemporary
Art Fair, in Shanghai, in 2011. Notable solo exhibitions including Tight Rope at
Yokohama Creative Center in Yokohama, Japan (2011), Rain in Some Areas at
Galerie Rdiger Schttle in Munich, Germany (2012) and Chen Wei: More at Leo Xu
Projects in Shanghai, China. His works have been shown at Seoul Museum of Art,
Seoul, Korea (2006), Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2009), Today
Art Museum, Beijing China (2009), Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
(2010), James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA (2011), He Xiangning Art Museum,
Shenzhen, China (2011), Gallery Hyandai, Seoul, Korea (2011), Katonah Museum of
Art, New York, USA (2012) and in the ON | OFF exhibition in Ullens Center for
Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2013). Chen Wei was the recipient of the first Asia
Pacific Photography Prize at SH Contemporary Art Fair in 2011.

Sources:
http://leoxuprojects.com/?page_id=97
https://www.artsy.net/artist/chen-wei

CHEN Wei Themes & Techniques

Chen Weis creative and contemplative process consists of searching for and
compiling myriad fragments of personal memories, and incorporating inspiration
and objects from childhood or fantasies imagined juxtaposed with realities found in
modern China. Most of the works are sketched and created on location in the artists
studio and then photographed, with the end result being less about the camera
process as it is about the assembly of the
elaborate elements that are captured in his
works. The spirit and style of Chen Weis
photography works also point towards a new
generation of emerging Chinese artists born in
the 1980s who are less focused on political
history or obvious social criticisms than
personal and intellectual freedoms and the
individuals place in a now modern and
developed China. History for them has been
obscured by economic and social reforms, and
the speed and scale of development is the
contemporary China they have witnessed.
Chen Wei addresses social issues and
documents human values and desires through
his photographs of still lifes, empty interiors,
and staged nightclub scenes. Whether
capturing dark, deserted interiors or dance
club portraits, Chens works are marked by a
dramatic, cinematic quality. Chen is best
known for the Float series, which calls attention to Chinas prohibition of large
gatherings, except in the case of nightclubs. Simultaneously sad and beautiful, the
The Stars in the Night Sky Are
Innumerable involves photography as
well as installation. There will continue
to be extended use of indoor and
outdoor settings, but I have also
included some scenes and objects, as
well as human portraits.

images reveal temporary escapes from a restrictive realitya sense reinforced by

the deliberately exaggerated, dream-like settings. Culling inspiration from the daily
news and everyday life, as well as artists such as John Cage, Wolfgang Tillmans,
Martin Parr, and Zhang Jungang, Chen is more concerned with capturing the
outcomes of dramatic conflicts than showing the stories behind them.
With cinematic settings, Chen Weis photos reveal dreamscapes that capture
impossible movement in everyday life and residues of histories. Modern and
contemporary literatures have served as his reference and inspiration. Chen has
exhibited extensively around the world, including Seoul Museum of Art, Museum of
Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Pingyao International Photography
Festival, Poznan Biennale, etc.

Sources:
http://www.m97gallery.com/artist/?artist=chen_wei
http://leoxuprojects.com/?page_id=97
http://artshare.com/contributor/16

GUO Xi ( )
Biography

Guo tries to interpret the world from different perspectives.

Within these different interpretations, he searches for the
fragile points that support these particular perspectives, the
points that require peoples faith to survive. Guo then intends
to untie, question, and even damage, some of these once
firmed beliefs through his work; he thereby, often leaves his
viewers with feelings of doubt, anxiety, but also absurdity.

His work includes many forms, such as installation, painting,

performance, sculpture, etc. He is not confined to any
particular media and does not want to restrain himself to just
one way of creating. Guo focuses on what it is that needs to
be said and then tries to find the most appropriate and
precise method to present his ideas.
He considers art as an intermediary that transfers ideas and information to the
viewer. To a certain degree, once the idea has been accurately accepted by the
viewers, then the purpose of the art work is fulfilled, and its visual form is simply the
residue of transferred information.

Guo participated in various exhibitions in China and abroad and his work has been
acknowledged by the Rijksakademie scholarship (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the
Outstanding Graduation Work Award (Hangzou, China), and the China Academy Art
Scholarship (Hangzou, China).
Guo Xi is a visual artist. Guo Xi has had several gallery and museum exhibitions,
including at the National Palace Museum and at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery,
Wesleyan University. Several works by the artist have been sold at auction,
including 'LANDSCAPE' sold at Poly International Auction Co. 'Classical Chinese
Paintings & Calligraphy' in 2013 for $562,896. There have been Several articles
about Guo Xi, including 'Relax Like You Are in 12th-Century China and Take in These
Lush Landscape Paintings' written by Kirstin Fawcett for Smithsonian Magazine in
2014.

Source:
http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Guo-Xi/D1F90F6DB0E29A2E
http://www.devearts.com/guo-xi.html

GUO Xi- Themes & Techniques

In his installation titled There Never Should Have Been an Artist Named Jia Siwen,
20122014, Guo Xi invents a Chinese artist named Jia Siwen whose work was lost
when shipped to the United States. In his absence, Guo Xi himself takes on the task
of recreating these fictional artworks. With a variety of elements, including paintings
and wall text, this installation investigates what it means to be a Chinese artist and
how this identity itself can be a fabrication.

Guo Xi was most recently

installation at the West

Guo Xi invents a fictitious character Jia Siwen, and uses

his identity to create paintings. At the same time, artist
Guo Xi will create artworks simultaneously to form a
conversation with Jia Siwen's works. In here, the
painter 'Jia Siwen' is fictitious, while Guo Xi is the reallife project artist himself. In this case, the significance
of 'conversation' is that the fictional Jia Siwen will have
a dialogue with his actual creator, Guo Xi, and this
artistic 'exchange' is also the artist self-questioning and
doubting. The wall in the exhibition room divide from
top to bottom into to two sections: the bottom part
placing the paintings by 'Mr. Jia Siwen'; to correspond
with Jia Siwen's paintings,
In There Never Should Have
there are works by Guoxi
Been an Artist Named Jia
placed on the top part of
Siwen,' I created an artist in
reality, similar to creating a
the wall. Recognized as an
Facebook user named 'Jia
emerging talent in China,
Siwen'. I use his identity to
honored with a solo
engage in artistic creation.
Bund Art Fair in Shanghai.

Sources:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
http://www.xguox.com/html/work/Jia%20Siwen.html
http://www.rijksakademie.nl/ENG/resident/xi-guo/about

JIN Shan ()
Biography
7

Jin Shan was born on 1977, in Jiangsu and lives and works
in Shanghai, China. He is represented by Pekin Fine Arts,
Beijing, Aike DellArco, Shanghai, and Masters & Pelavin,
New York. He is one of the most promising artists of the
younger generation in China. He works in different media
to reflect the daily life of young people in contemporary
China. He is a leading voice in an emerging generation of
socially engaged contemporary artists in China, and an
agent provocateur.
Shan received his BFA in 2000 at the East China Normal
University, Faculty of Fine Arts. Preferring wit and satire to
aggression and conflict, Jin Shan uses humor and play to
draw audiences into a confrontation with the social, cultural and political problems
of the modern world. The kind of dizzying transformation of Chinese society which
oftentimes brings artistic expression into direct conflict with state authority is more
than present in Shans work.
One of the prevailing topics in his work is this critique of authority. In one of his
recent works, Shanghai-based artist whimsically investigates the varied conditions
of that particular subject. At the center of the installation, a larger-than-life silicone
policeman is suspended from the ceiling. Slowly rising on a motorized wire against a
projected backdrop of deep space, the figure suddenly drops to the ground. With
eyes closed and palms open, the enraptured pose of the policeman is meant to
evoke religious imagery.
Beyond his personal history, Jin Shan also uses his body in his sculptural and
installation works. He has exhibited at international exhibitions such as the Venice
Biennial in 2007 and the Singapore Biennial in 2006 and at many important art fairs
worldwide.

Source:
http://www.widewalls.ch/artist/jin-shan/
8

JIN Shan- Themes & Techniques

A consummate sculptor who has worked in a wide variety of mediums, Jin Shan
often plays the bad boy with works that tweak viewers expectations. For example,
Desperate Pee (2007), earlier in his career he installed a life-like replica of himself
as a fountain, peeing off a bridge in Venice during the
Biennale that aroused the ire of local citizens who
contacted the police to have the statue arrested. With
No Man City (2014) he takes a more reflective look on
his relationship with his father, who is also an artist
and examines his fathers history as an artist who lived
through the Cultural Revolution to emerge as a set
designer in his later life. Jin projects a mini-history of
Jin Shan, With No Man City
his fathers oeuvre on the walls of a futuristic
built a utopian house (aptly
structure, bridging the gap between two generations in
described by Megan as a
a way that suggests a more integrated future.
cross between a cathedral
and an iceberg) out of Tyvek
paper, above which hung a
mobile of motifs from his
father's art, lit so that they
cast endlessly shifting
shadows of tradition onto the

Jin Shan is an installation artist who uses humor to

examine more troubling aspects of life in China. Jin
Shan created a utopian structure, stretching 25 feet
long, representing Chinas future. Onto this element,
he projects shadows of images from classical paintingsa crane, a sunrise, and a
chrysanthemumall taken from his fathers more traditional paintings. In another
exhibition It Came from the Sky (2011), a silicone figure of a policeman attached to
motorized wire, larger than human scale, was hoisted to the ceiling of the gallery
and dropped repeatedly to the ground, in an interrogation of power.

Source:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
http://www.artlinkart.com/en/artist/exh_yr/15fbtzo
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
9

Print.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/why-hung-lius-massive-installations-dontquite-satisfy/Content?oid=3454821

Pixy Yijun LIAO ()

Biography
As an artist born and raised in Shanghai, China,
but currently residing in Brooklyn, Yijun Liao has
always had something to share within her work.
She is a recipient of NYFA Fellowship, En Focos
New Works Fellowship and LensCulture
Exposure Awards and has done artist
residencies at Light Work, Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council, and Centre for Photography at
Woodstock and Camera Club of New York.
Liao is currently doing a studio residency at
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and will have
a darkroom residency at Camera Club of New
York in 2013. She has done artist residency at
Woodstock AIR program in 2010. Liao holds a MFA in photography from University of
Memphis. Liaos works have been widely exhibited internationally, including NordArt
2011(Germany), kunst licht Gallery (China), Arario Gallery (New York), Jen Bekman
Gallery (New York), VT Artsalon (Taiwan), and 2008 Pingyao International
Photography Fest (China).
She had her solo shows at Adam Shaw Studio (Memphis, TN) and Chinese American
Art Council (New York).Liao has won En Foco New Works Award in 2012, Flash
Forward - Emerging Photographers 2011 (Magenta, Canada), Photography Now
2009 (CPW), and Hey, Hot Shot (Jen Bekman Gallery) in 2008.

10

Sources:
http://www.badluck.co/interviews/pixy-yijun-liao/
http://momaps1.org/studio-visit/artist/yijun-liao

Pixy Yijun LIAO Themes & Techniques

Pixy Yijun Liao has garnered awards and accolades for Experimental Relationship, an
ongoing photography series begun in 2007. Collaborating with her Japanese
boyfriend, Liao takes a skewered look at heterosexual relationships, often reversing
the power dynamics between a man and a woman to humorous effect. Working in
New York, her photographs contradict a recent trend in China in which traditional
gender roles are being reinforced due to family pressure to marry and have a child
by the age of 30 or else risk being considered a leftover woman, the term applied
to educated single women living in Chinese urban centers.
Theres a surge of focus on the study of
human sexuality and identity; male or female,
straight, gay or otherwise. Pixy Liao uses her
photographic processes as a means to
experiment further with feminine ideals.
She redefining femininity and preconceived
notions about how women behave. By using
themselves, and their own intimate
experiences, they are able to pose new
questions about the female gaze, and body.
Running the gamut from novel to
performance, if not total surrealism, the show
doesnt have a dull moment.
Pixy Liaos images poses questions that
challenge rolls of men and women in
relationships. Growing up in China, men are
meant to provide woman with protection and
mentorship. Men are looked at and meant to
be older than the woman to whom they are
married. Liao currently finds herself in a
relationship where she is five years older. Her partner Moro interacts with her in
experimental and totally poetic photographic frames. Liaos photos explore the self
and how individuals interact and receive each other outside of limitations. Liao
embraces Moros naked body; she shields and looks to nurture him.
Some Words Are Just Between Us flips
the image of masculine power on its
head, turning the woman into the
purveyor of control through poses,
gestures and interactions between two
parts of a couple, all caught on film. In
the photos, Moro can be seen as the
submissive party -- directed, managed

11

Source:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
http://www.featureshoot.com/2016/02/new-photo-exhibition-pushes-the-boundariesof-femininity-and-gender-roles/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/lijun-liao_n_4689642.html

LIU Chuang ()
Biography
Liu Chuang (b. 1978 Hubei, China) currently
lives and works in Beijing after developing his
practice in the boomtown of Shenzhen. His
critical artistic approach based on conceptual
work takes as its starting point the rupture
between individuals and its inner aesthetics,
exploring art into new territories. Liu Chuang is
an art interventionist acting in the public space
who challenges our perception of everyday life
details and usual patterns. Exploring social
rules, he plays along with them in order to
disrupt the conventional status of things with
simple poetical ideas that resonates politically
and philosophically. As a thirty-something, he
witnessed, during the span of his lifetime, the
unprecedented industrial and urbanism growth
of China, and his practice naturally interacts with this ever-evolving and
disconcerting environment.
Liu Chuang toys with the boundaries of social practice, pushing them to their limits.
A conceptual and performance artist, Liu mines the tension between consensus and
individualism through his exploration of the rapidly evolving Chinese landscape. His
goal is to uncover the rarely questioned underlying structures of daily life and to
expose them as constructions.
Through his installations and performances, he reveals the voices of the multitude
of individuals secret lives, dreams and daily routines, revealing in the meantime the
infrastructures of the contemporary society status quo and its comfortable truce
negotiated by global capitalism.
In one performance made in Beijing in 2010, he altered the continual flows of cars
with the help of a duo of them slowing down the traffic by entering in a slow
synchronized dance, in a place where usually individuality and speed prevail and
excel. By replacing one traffic barrier protection and modifying it, or by using
everyday objects, as air conditioning apparel or second-hand books, he extracts
12

their philosophical value and shows us what we could learn about our daily life
through them.
In yet another time and public space, this time a workers market, he asked job
seekers to hand him, in exchange of some money, everything they were wearing on
them. Like a contemporary archaeologist trying to capture a specific moment of the
live and identity of his generation, he then conveys a cold multi-faced portrait of his
contemporaries through the layout of their belonging on low plinths, the piece
resonating strangely from their bodily absence.

Sources:
https://www.artsy.net/artist/liu-chuang
http://leoxuprojects.com/?page_id=292

LIU Chuang Themes & Techniques

Deeply influenced by conceptual art practices, Liu Chuang has created a series of
installations that have been shown internationally, including in The Generational:
Younger Than Jesus at the New Museum in 2009. In Love Story (1) (2014), Liu
assembled an installation from romance novels found at a street corner lending
library frequented by migrant workers in Chenzhen. He discovered that the readers
often wrote inscriptions in the margins, commenting on their own loneliness and
longing to return to their families back home. Liu Chuang color-coded these
comments and had them translated into English, which was then inscribed on the
walls of the gallery for audiences to appreciate.

13

Liu Chuang is a multimedia artist who

has been deemed an interventionist
for his disruption and conventions,
engaging most often in performative
actions involving relational aesthetics.
Originally based in Shenzhen, a port city
with a high migrant population, he
created Buying Everything On You
(2006-7), in which he approached
workers and asked to purchase
everything they were wearing, finding
an array of willing volunteers. He then
As if the notes of the Love Story readers were
categorized the articles of clothing, like
written directly to him, Chuang has culled,
translated and painted them onto the gallery
an urban archeologist, an arresting
walls. Chuang has identified six types of notes
installation that was features in the
scribbled into the collection of books, draft for
Generational: Younger than Jesus
a letter, personal diary, Contemporary poems,
triennial at the New Museum in New York
Home address and contact information,
biographical info, phone number, daily memo,
in 2009 and at the 2013 Frieze Art Fair in
New York. Later moving to Beijing, he adjusted his practice to fit this multilayered
mega-metropolitan. In Untitled (The Dancing Partner) (2010), the artist films two
white sedans navigating their way side by side through the busy streets of Beijing,
staying at the minimum city speed limit of 60 km/h. By so stringently following the
rules, they seemingly envelop themselves in their own world, while also upsetting
the traffic flow on busy city highways.

Source:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.
http://leoxuprojects.com/?p=2383

LU Yang ()
Biography

14

While the new media artist Lu Yang was studying at the

China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in the 2000s, she drew
up a series of works dealing with mind control. Many were
deemed too sensitive, even borderline unethical, and remain
unrealized. But with the help of the Fukuoka Asian Art
Museum in Japan, Ms. Lu was able to obtain dead frogs that
had been used in a medical dissection to produce one of the
works. The result is a six-minute video called Reanimation!
Underwater Zombie Frog Ballet (2011), in which frogs wired
to electrodes dance in water to a funky electronic beat.
Since graduating in 2010, the Shanghai-born Ms. Lu, 30, has
produced a series of boundary-pushing multimedia works
that explore neuroscience, mortality and religion. In Uterus
Man (2013), she collaborated with musicians, manga artists
and others to create a project centered on an anime-style character called Uterus
Man who rides a pelvis chariot and skateboards on a winged sanitary pad. In
Moving Gods (2015), which was featured in the China Pavilion at the 2015 Venice
Biennale, Ms. Lu redefines the nimbus the halo often seen in images of sacred
figures in what is meant to be a sabotage of ancient religious icons. Her latest
work is Lu Yang Delusional Mandala (2015), presented in September in a solo
show at Beijing Commune. It applies concepts like stereotactic mapping and deepbrain stimulation to simulate a delusion in which Ms. Lu destroys her own body
and work.
Considered a rising star in China, Lu Yang is an expert animator and digital artist
who designs both installations and video projects. In 2014, she invented Uterus
Man, inspired by a Japanese transgender artist in Tokyo. Other works such as Moving
Gods and Delusional Mandala expand her engagement with religion and gender.
Though Lu Yang, like most women artists in China, would not call herself a feminist,
she is nonetheless creating works that challenge traditional roles ascribed to
Chinese women.
Exploring the outer limits of new technology, Lu Yang creates multimedia projects
that incorporate 3-D animations, medical illustrations, and techno music. Bordering
on science fiction, these works interrogate structures of repression, ranging from
psychotropic drugs to Buddhist deities. In her trilogy of related works Wrathful
King Kong Core, Wrathful King Kong Core X-Ray Mode, and Wrathful Nine Heads X
Brain Anger Pathway (2011) she presents Yamantaka, the Tibetan Buddhist god of
rage. She analyzes the symbolism of the objects he holds in his brain chemistry as
is being analyzed by a psycho-pharmacologist. The stunning beauty of this word is
only heightened by its hard-core rhythm and amazing details. In Lus able hands,
this ancient figure becomes relevant symbol of the frenetic pace of
contemporary China.
Sources:
15

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/world/asia/china-art-lu-yang-venicebiennale.html?_r=0
http://www.digicult.it/digimag/issue-052/tortuous-visions-of-lu-yang-the-bioart-inchina/
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.

LU Yang Themes & Techniques

Q: How did you become interested in the subject of the body?
A: When I was a child, I spent a lot of time in hospital emergency rooms because I
had asthma. So naturally I became interested in the idea of medical treatment and
the body. The body is fascinating to me because it is totally objective. There is no
right or wrong. Thats why in my work I dont indicate the value or the aim of things.
I use a very cold and calm approach.
Another theme in my work is religion. Its more difficult to get into religion when
youre older because youre more skeptical. But growing up, my family was pretty
religious. I often read my grandmothers books about Buddhism, which made me
really interested in religion.
Q: Does your family have a background in art?
A: My parents were just ordinary workers at a medical company. Now theyre both
retired. I dont talk about my art with my parents. But I think theyve probably
looked up my work on the Internet. They know I make art, and they know I can
make a living. I can depend on myself, so for them thats enough.
Q: Did you know from a young age, growing up in Shanghai, that you wanted to be
an artist?
A: I always dreamed of being an artist. But after I
entered middle school, I didnt think it would be
possible. I didnt even know what artists did exactly. I
only knew that artists could be creative in their work.
I was able to get into the China Academy of Art
because I really liked to paint. I was growing up at
about the same time that Chinese contemporary art
was beginning to emerge, so I learned about
contemporary art early on. When I was in middle
school, my classmates were interested in the latest
trends, but I wanted to find more special things, so I
started going to galleries and listening to Japanese
music. Later, in high school, I subscribed to some magazines about contemporary
art.
DELUSIONAL MANDALA The
artist created a digital nonsexual
human simulator in her own
shape for the first time to
complete an artwork. Because of
the powerful curse in the
content of the work, the artist
has to apply the spell to herself

Q: What were some of your early influences?

16

A: I used to like Western rock music, but I dont really listen to it anymore. I was also
exposed to Japanese culture at an early age. In Shanghai, a lot of television
channels played Japanese cartoons, so they had a big influence on our generation.
My favorite thing today is still mainstream culture, like sci-fi movies with really good
computer-generated effects and other really good Japanese animated movies. I
dont really like art-house films.
Q: You often collaborate with other nonvisual artists, like the sound artist Wang
Changcun and the composer Du Yun. How do these collaborations come about?
A: Sometimes I search for musicians and sometimes they find me. Ive collaborated
with musicians who work in opera, death metal, electronic and pop music, and hiphop. They are usually acquaintances or people Ive discovered on websites like
SoundCloud. The Internet is quite useful, because I dont really interact with people
that much. As long as I have access to a computer, I can make art.
Q: Do you identify as a Chinese artist?
A: Its kind of inevitable that youre labeled as one. If I have an exhibition abroad,
they always say, This is a Chinese artist. But thats why I say that I want to live on
the Internet. That way, nobody knows who you are. People online only care about
your work and whether its any good. Theyre not thinking about who the person is
behind the work. By living on the Internet, you can abandon your identity,
nationality, gender, even your existence as a human being. I rather like this feeling.
Q: Can you talk about your 2013 work Uterus Man?
A: The human embodiment of Uterus Man in my work is a Japanese man named
Mao Sugiyama, who had his genitals cut off and served them in a meal to other
people. When I first heard about him I thought he sounded really weird. But then I
noticed that he was a painter and that he had said that he hated gender labels and
if he was just a painter then why did he need to have a gender? I was really moved
so I got in touch with him. Thats how we started collaborating. A lot of people think
its a feminist work, while others think that its a superhero story. People project
what theyre already thinking. My own opinion is that you cant choose your gender
when youre born and it only matters in a social context. When youre
contemplating something, you dont consciously think, As a man, I think this or
As a woman, I think this. Thats why I think societys gender divisions are pretty
absurd.
Q: You said you basically live on the Internet and your work is influenced by things
you see online. Is there any influence from real-world events or politics?
A: The older generation of artists really like to make works concerning politics or the
nation. But I think there are limitations to this creative method. If you dont
understand politics, or if youre not from that country, you cant understand the
17

works. I dont really understand these kinds of things myself. Im really scared of
going to museums, because I dont understand a lot of the works. There are things
that are common to all human beings and even animals. Basically, I spend my time
chasing after those universal things we all have in common.

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/world/asia/china-art-lu-yang-venicebiennale.html?_r=0
http://luyang.asia/?page_id=877
http://luyang.asia/?p=1626

MA Qiusha ()
Biography
Ma Qiusha was born in 1982 and currently
lives and works in Beijing, China. She
graduated in 2005 from Digital Media studio
of The Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
MFA in Electronic Integrated Art, Alfred
University, New York (2008).
Ma Qiushas works can be seen as a very
coherent evolution of the concept of
degeneration. In her case the stress on the
body or behavior is meant to match
corresponding social phenomena and the
awareness of them, but its also used as a
strategy to counterbalance the innate
degenerative aspect of life.
Her videos materialize stained hence
degenerated dreams. These are nothing but
disguised hopes or projected ideals, and as
such can be very controversial and oppressive. Displaying a condition made of
objective physical circumstances and subjective ideas, including prejudices, Ma
doesnt seem intimidated by a world in which women can still be object of a
patronizing attitude. Like her colleagues Guan Xiao and Lu Yang, she does not
pretend everythings fine, she knows exactly where the problem lies, and it is
precisely there in that knot of unspoken truths that she intervenes to upset a
functional order.
Her work was recently featured in Personal Space, 24HR Contemporary Art Center,
Australia; Landscape Topology, Magee Gallery, Beijing, China; Madrid, Spain;
18

Anything is Possible, CCRN Luxembourg; and REFRESH: Emerging Chinese Artists at

the Zendai Moma, Shanghai, China. Group exhibitions include the 35th International
Film Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2006); Rumor Dcor, ddmwarehouse,
Shanghai, China (2005); Beijing DocumentaProducing HIGH, Beijing, China (2005);
920 Kilograms, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China (2005);
Archaeology of the Future: the Second Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing Museum,
Nanjing, China (2005); 2004 Automat Contemporary Art Exhibition, Suzhou Art &
Design Technology Institute, Suzhou, China (2004); and SCARIFYChina Present
Independent Video Exhibition, Beijing, China (2004). Ma Qiusha is represented by
Beijing Commune in Beijing, China.

Source:
http://pica.org/artists/ma-qiusha/

MA Qiusha Themes & Techniques

Ma Qiusha makes videos that evoke a violent, visceral quality, bordering on
performative. In her early work From No.4 Pingyuanli to No.4 Tianqiaobeili (2007),
she faces the audience and recounts her training as an artist, from elementary
school through college, in harrowing detail. Plucked from her kindergarten class as
having talent, Ma was then sent to drawing classes every day after school, which
she describes as the end of her childhood. At
the end of the video, she gingerly removes a
razor blade from her mouth, a symbol of the
sharp pain of this remembrance. Her account
echoes the experience of many young Chinese
artists. Ma Qiusha's works in a variety of
mediums including photography, video,
installation, performance and painting. As a
female artist, Ma maximizes her exquisite and
sensitive tastes, trying to find hidden crisis
under the surface of peace and harmony.
Ma Qiusha works in a wide variety of media, often creating visceral sensations from
sharp objects and bodily materials. In Static Electricity, a gallery exhibition in 2012,
she presented a three-channel video, Red/White/ Yellow, which respectively records
the process of frozen blocks of blood, urine, and milk melting frozen solid into liquid.
Two Years Younger Than Me (2013) presents her uncles stubble, bottled as
specimens and exhibited in order of his annual shavings, which he saved based on a
superstition about throwing away the remains. It is a slightly repulsive yet tender
way of marking the passage of time. She is best known though for her early video,
From No.4 Pingyuanli to No.4 Tianqiaobeili (2007), in which she recounts her
19

personal life story, an account of becoming an artist under tremendous pressure

from her parents to succeed. Facing the viewer
In a notable video piece from that
directly, MA Qiusha struggles to form the
time, From No.4 Ping Yuanli to No. 4
Tianqiaobeili, Ma holds a razor blade
words, which might be seen as an emotional
on her tongue and tells a story of a life
response, until at the last minute she reveals
of excessive expectation and
that she has had a razor blade on her tongue,
discipline.
cutting her mouth every time she spoke. It is representative of how painful such
intimate confessions can be for Chinese youth.

Sources:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
http://www.artfinding.com/91552/Biography/Ma-Qiusha
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.

SHI Zhiying ()
Biography
Born in Shanghai, 1979, Shi Zhiying graduated from the
Oil Painting Department at the Shanghai University Fine
Arts College. In 2009, the artist was the subject of a
major solo exhibition entitled From The Pacific Ocean to
the High Seas at the Ullens Center of Contemporary Art
in Beijing. Her work has been featured in distinguished
group exhibitions including Reactivation- the 9th
Shanghai Biennale at the Shanghai Museum of
Contemporary Art, N Minutes Video Art Festival,
Shanghai, Decade of the Rabbit, White Rabbit Gallery,
Sydney, and DAS ICH IM ANDEREN, Stiftung Mercator,
Essen, in 2011; Double Act 2010 Chinese
Contemporary Art Exhibition, Red Town Warehouse,
Shanghai, and Centennial Celebration of Women in Art, Shanghai Art Museum, in
2010; and in solo exhibitions at James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, in 2012, and White
Space, Beijing, in 2010 and 2013.
Shi Zhiying has become well known in her native China for stark monochromatic
paintings of uniform vistas open water, Zen sand gardens, carpets of grass,
20

facades of weathered ancient structures that flood the viewers field of vision. Her
fluent observational painting embodies, and promotes intense reflections on
individuality and the passage of time. Some things havent changed, from the
distant past all the way to the present and the future, the artist states. They are
things which everyone possesses. Often times inspired by the artists travels in
China, Cambodia and India, her chosen subjects have been softened by hands and
the environment, and riven with the small surface imperfections of age. Her
monumental paintings of eroded carved stone capture an immeasurably slow but
consistent transfer between physical presence, flatness and nothingness.
For The Relics, her first exhibition in the United States at James Cohan Gallery in
June 2013, Zhiying expanded upon these ideas debuting large-scale paintings of
decorative and religious relief carvings and intimate portraits of antique vessels that
illuminate the spirit of the imagery that has endured for hundreds of years. Ritual
objects for domestic use such as reliquary boxes, chalices and bowls captured in
lush black and white, cease to hold their original practical meaning as one now
encounters them: behind glass, as artifacts in museums. Viewed out of context and
through a modern lens, these once every day, functional objects have new
significance. No longer useful, they contain a vacancy charged with past and
presentan experience Zhiying believes is shared. I wish to face things quietly,
attentively the artist has stated, I treat painting [and objects] sincerely; I am
communicating with them Her paintings turn these vessels into small
monuments monuments to usefulness and its reverse, emptiness, as well as the
humanity we breathe into the objects of our world.
Zhiying was included in a group exhibition entitled, My Generation: Young Chinese
Artists at the Tampa Museum of Art in 2014. Most recently in 2015, Zhiying had a
solo exhibition entitled I Dont Pretend to Understand the Universe at James Cohan
Gallery, Shanghai. She currently lives and works in Shanghai.
Source:
http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/shi-zhiying

SHI Zhiying Themes & Techniques

Heavily influenced by Buddhism, Anselm Kiefer, and traditional Chinese ink
painting, Shi Zhiying is best known for her monochromatic, meditative canvases.
Often inspired by stele and reliefs of ancient artifacts found in Chinese art
museums, she renders these subjects in almost three dimensional detail. For Dong
Ujimqin Qi Stone Iron Mesosiderite (2013) she depicts a 195 lb. meteorite that
landed in China in 1995.

21

Shi Zhiying creates canvases that are, at first

glance, serene and meditative. Closer
engagement with her paintings, however, brings
her strong brushwork and austere palette to our
attention. The combination between technique
and content creates artworks that carefully
balance Eastern and Western influences,
rendering subjects from classical Chinese painting
in more contemporary terms. Her painting, The
Pacific Ocean (2011), recalls her own encounter
with the sea while visiting a lighthouse on a trip to
the United States.
The artists spiritual awakening on seeing the
immensity of the ocean and the infinite horizon
line are conveyed in this monochromatic work.
Likewise, in Rock Carving of Thousand Buddhas
(2013), using minimal brushstrokes, Shi conjures up the ancient stone steles that
she saw at the Shanghai
Museum. Her
Rock Carving of Thousand Buddhas
work seems as timeless as the
thousand
by Shi Zhiying, are oil paintings of
vessels and stone carvings at
Buddhas motif on which it is
based, evoking
Chelseas
James
Cohan
Gallery
transcendence for modern-day
audiences.
were inspired by her travels in
China, Cambodia and India.

Source:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.
http://newyorkarttours.com/blog/?p=2122

SUN Xun ()
Biography
22

Sun Xun (b.1980, Fuxin, Liaoning, China) is an

artist based in Beijing. He graduated in 2005 from
the Print-making Department of the China
Academy of Fine Arts. In 2006 he established
Animation Studio. During 2010 he has received
several notable awards including the Chinese
Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA Best Young
Artist) and Taiwan Contemporary Art Link Young
Art Award.
Sun Xun predominantly makes monochromatic,
highly detailed hand-drawn limited edition
animation films and also exhibits his individual cell
drawings and other mixed media works,
sometimes alongside his films. His series of small
mixed media works titled Shock of Time (2006)
challenged notions of time, history and narration
and utilized media such as newspapers, books and
other documentary material that served to highlight certain passages of history.
Other works have investigated the construction and narration of history, societal
development and revolution and referencing such theorists as Marx, Adorno, and
Horkheimer.
His recent film 21 KE (21 GRAMS) (2010) has had its world premiere at the new
Orizzonti section at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, as the first Chinese
animation film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Recent solo exhibitions
include: Clowns Revolution, Holland Animation Festival, Center Museum, Utrecht,
Netherlands (2010); 21KE, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); The Soul of
Time, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2010); Animals, Max Protetch
Gallery, New York, U.S.A (2009); Peoples Republic of Zoo, University of Essex
Gallery, U.K.(2009); His Story, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2009); The New
China, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, U.S.A(2008); etc. Recent group exhibitions
include: Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York (2014), By Day By Night or Some (Special) Things a Museum Can
Do, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); China Power Station Part 3,
Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino, Italy (2010); Aichi Tiennale 2010, Aichi, Japan (2010);
2009 Art Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria; etc.

23

Source:
http://www.acaw.info/?page_id=12861

SUN Xun Themes & Techniques

Inspired by a trip to New Yorks American Museum of Natural History, Sun went
about creating his own encyclopedic view of the world, including multiple paintings
of anthropomorphic animals from which he made an animation. Some of these
works were featured at his 2015 exhibition at Sean Kelly Gallery titled The Time
Vivarium. Acutely aware of Chinas history and political situation, Sun Xun uses
these animals as allegories of Chinese political leaders, turning heads into
megaphones and movie cameras as a commentary on government surveillance.
Combining woodcuts,
drawings, ink-and-brush
painting, animation, and set
design, Sun Xun creates
illustrations that invite the
audience into surrealistic
nations with their own
idiosyncratic and arbitrary
rules. Since graduating from
school, he has founded an
animation studio, where he
produces short films, such as
21 KE (21 Grams) (2010),
The exhibit, like state history, is designed with a socio-political
and a labor-intensive project
agenda, heavily influencing notions of cultural identity. Unlike
that took over four years to
the dioramas in the museum, The Time Vivarium will by
produce. He is never
satisfied, though, to present a video by itself, insisting instead on adding paintings
and design from Western philosophers, ranging from Karl Marx to Martin Heidegger,
Suns artwork take a pessimistic view of political affairs, often depicting the leader
as a magician, playing tricks and confusing a larger public. When asked if this is his
opinion of present-day China, he immediately responds that the whole world suffers
from the same problem. Sun Xun will be making a special installation about the
United States for this exhibition.

Source:
24

http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.
http://www.skny.com/exhibitions/2014-12-13_sun-xun/pressrelease/

Bo WANG ()
Biography
Chris Marker once mentioned that the images in his films
came from an entirely different universe. That is the
feeling one has watching Bo Wangs films about
contemporary China. China Concerto focuses on a
dramatic political power grab that rattled the countrys
leadership and sent one of its most prominent members
to prison. In that film, among other works, Bo uses
innovative cinematic techniques to expose the political,
social, and physical landscape of China. Born and raised
in Chongqing, he went to Beijing for college before living
in the United States for several years.
Bos photography project, Heteroscapes, displays reality beyond imagination.
Abandoned world-landmark themed amusement parks, hyper-modern overpasses
dwarfing derelict housing projects, mimetic European towns in the heart of China,
and tremendous construction projects juxtaposed with verdant landscapes
demonstrate the incredible transformation of his country.
In photographs and films, Bo Wang explores the economic and political dynamics of
China from the perspective of a Chinese artist, now living in the U.S. Heteroscapes,
a photographic series inspired by Michel Foucaults writings on heterotopias, looks
at the surrealistic nightmare of his hometown Chongqing, which has undergone
radical transformation, obliterating aspects of the past to make way for an
ambivalent future. Wang also has made a film specifically for this exhibition looking
at Art Basel Hong Kong, a major art fair that has contributed to the globalization of
the Chinese art world.

25

Sources:
http://asiasociety.org/texas/exhibitions/we-chat-dialogue-contemporary-chineseart#pressrelease
https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/bo-wang-doric-columns-in-chongqing/

Bo WANG Themes & Techniques

Guernica: China Concerto was shown at the Beijing Independent Film Festival, China
Independent Film Festival, and MoMA Doc Fortnight. What was your approach to
making the film?
Bo Wang: Around 2009, the party secretary of my hometown Chongqing, Bo Xilai,
initiated a tremendous political campaign to pursue top party leadership. A major
component of the campaign focused on reviving Maoist ideology. It generated a
prodigious amount of propaganda. China Concerto was a reflection and observation
of this campaign, a campaign that ended dramatically, in 2012, when Bo Xilais
chief police officer [Wang Lijun] fled to the American consulate for asylum.
Guernica: You organized a film series called We Land/ I Was Born/ Passing By about
New Yorks Chinatown.
Bo Wang: I put it together with the artist Lynne Sachs, and film curators Xin Zhou
and Lesley Qin. We tried to raise questions about the history, fantasy, and
representation of Chinatown, through artistic and vernacular images.
Guernica: And youre headed to Hong Kong to start a new film?
Bo Wang: First Im going to see family and friends in
Beijing, then Im going to Hong Kong to shoot. We still
have to hire a location fixer. There is very tight
regulation in all aspects of social life in Hong Kong.
There are rules written everywhere. If you go to the
park, the first thing you see is a list of things you
cant do: dont walk your dog, dont skateboard, and
dont lie on the benches. For example, Hong Kong
University is at the top of a hill. If you go down to the
river, there is Sun Yat Sen Park. When you go to the
bathroom, there is immediately a sign that says no
photography. Do you really need to write that down?
Its provocative. A fixer will get us access to the
places we wouldnt otherwise be able to shoot.

26

Action, not words by Bo Wang

is seemingly just another
extension of his personality
and character.

Guernica: Tell me about your new film.

Bo Wang: Hong Kong is the archetype of a free market

economy. Taxes are extremely low. The country
advertises itself as a hub for international exchange. But accordingly the
government makes very little money from taxes, while having to maintain the citys
infrastructure. The general impression is that space is very limited in Hong Kong.
People live in tiny apartments, packed tightly together. The government owns or
leases out all of the land. The starting point of our documentary is looking at the
percentage of land in use in Hong Kong. Its very surprising. Only 23 percent of the
land is used. 77 percent is not in use or being held. The government makes money
by creating an artificial shortage of land, and selling this land at extremely inflated
prices. Accordingly, the whole society ends up relying on this very expensive
housing cost to maintain the countrys infrastructure. This artificial inflation of
property value creates a huge gap between social classes. Housing prices in Hong
Kong are probably four times what they are in Manhattan.
Guernica: What is Hong Kong like culturally?
Bo Wang: Lots of people say that Hong Kong is a very different culturally from
[Mainland] China. For example, there are no startups in Hong Kong. The real estate
industry in Hong Kong is so strong and predictable that whenever people have
money they put it in real estate. No one would bother to invest money in IT where
theres risk involved. Real estate has hijacked everything. There is very little interest
in putting money into cultural outlets. Money is for profit, and the art scene is
relatively weak. There are big galleries from the UK and New York, but it has very
little to do with the city itself. Its about making connections with wealthy people
throughout East Asia. The whole society is structured around the production of
space: How much the government will sell the land for. Everything functions
according to the logic of the market.
Guernica: You grew up in Chongqing and later moved to Beijing.
Bo Wang: I went to college in Beijing; I lived there for seven years. It was an
interesting moment. Beijing had the Olympics in 2008, and they announced the
location of the games seven years before. So when I moved to Beijing in 2001, the
city had just won the nomination. Basically, my whole memory of Beijing is as one
tremendous construction site. Practically every building was covered in these huge,
blue-green walls, and you couldnt see anything that was happening behind. It was
a city in hiding.
Guernica: There are similar walls around construction sites in Moscow. There are
building facades painted on the walls. The strange part is that its a totally different
building from the one being built behind. You walk around a doubled city.
Bo Wang: In Maos hometown, Shaoshan, which is a huge city in central China, the
buildings are covered in these landscape paintings. They sometimes even have
27

these cheesy slogans. My favorite was a tremendous landscape scene covering a

construction site, which read, in huge letters, Nature is the most beautiful scene.

Source:
https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/bo-wang-doric-columns-in-chongqing/
http://www.easyreadernews.com/78622/now-art-shaolin-monk-wang-bo/

Important Concepts:
Me Generation
Like their counterparts in the West particularly the YBAs, or young British artists,
who reinvigorated British are in the late 1980s these young Chinese artist (lets
call them YCAs) are ready to make their mark on Chinese art in new and exciting
ways. Individualism is the hallmark of their generation, as is apparent by even the
most cursory glance at this catalogue. They work in every medium painting,
sculpture, new media, video, and photography and in every single imaginable. And
even within the same medium, it is easy to distinguish one from the other; their
approaches are remarkably unique. Their differences, of course, go beyond merely
their choice of materials. So individualistic are these art-makers that they are
sometimes accused of extreme narcissism and labeled the Me Generation by
critics in China. And it is true that one common factor, if any, is their concern with
interiority. They often explore the psychological condition of living in China, rather
than confront social issues or political history, as was the case of an earlier
generation of Chinese artists who came of age during the Cultural Revolution and
lived through Tiananmen Square.
Individuality is a double-edged issue for YCAs, who, on one hand, celebrate the
freedom afforded their generation and, on the other, ruminate on the alienation and
loneliness they often experience. An example of the exuberance and celebratory
spirit of this generation can be found in the photographs of Birdhead, a
collaborative name for the team of Ji Weiyu and Song Tao, 34 and 33 respectively.
Mimicking the obsessive use of social media for self-documentation in contemporary
China, they take seemingly random pictures of friends and families in their
hometown of Shanghai, interjecting snapshots of everything from bonsai gardens to
street detritus. Along the way, they capture the energy and self-absorption of their
contemporaries, as they hang out in Internet cafes and rock out at one of the citys
music clubs. Working as documentarians of their generation, Birdhead lay out their
images in large-scale grids that isolate their subjects from each other, emphasizing
28

the lack of unity in the scattered acts of rebellion depicted in their photographs.
Through they themselves are uninhibited, their work conveys image of a group of
young people who are self-obsessed and aimless.

Source:
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.

Family Ties
Alienation is the flipside of rampant individuality, and for many of the artist in My
Generation the alienation caused by ruptures to the family is a key focus of their
works.
A significant gap exists between these artist and their parents and grandparents, in
terms of comfort with Western influences, fluency in English, attitudes towards work
and love relationships , and digital capabilities. Seventy-five percent of Chinas
netizens are under age 35, proof of the widening gap between the generations.
YCAs parents and grandparents grew up in a world where Western products were
unavailable and forbidden, but this younger generation is able to easily access
information from the West with the click of a mouse. Many YCAs are also fluent in
English, overcoming the discomfort of language barriers experienced by their
parents. These differences distance the children from their parents to such an
extent that is as if they grew up in different countries and in different centuries
rather than two decades apart. This rapidity of change and the influx of global
influences have severely impacted the trust between generations and caused
tensions within the family once the bedrock of Chinese society.
This sense of family rupture is pronounced in several of the works in My Generation,
starting with the moving video From No. 4 Pingyuanli to No.4 Tianqiaobeili (2007) by
Ma Qiushas work details the abuse she suffered on the road to admission into art
school starting with her elementary school drawing lessons, reviewed each day by
her tiger mother, who was highly critical of her every mistake. At the end of the
video, the artist removes a razorblade from her mouth. It is a visceral symbol of her
pain and her sense of danger about speaking out on such intimate matters.
29

Irrelevant Commission, a collective of nine artist based in Beijing comprised of Chen

Zhiyuan, Feng Lin, Gao Fei, Guo Lijun, Jia Hongyu, Li Liangyong, Niu Ke, Wang Guilin,
and Ye Nan, consistently makes works that directly address the generation gap. In
their show at Tang Contemporary in Beijing, the group created sculptures using
tools and furniture from their parents homes. The choice of objects a loom,
teapots, and old-fashioned light fixture conveys the state of past-tense in which
their parents live, while the artist are more firmly rooted in a future yet to take
place.

Source:
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.

Gender Roles and Intimate Relationships

The pain of personal expression pain not only about an original incident but also in
the retelling is found in many of the works that deal with gender roles and
relationship in My Generation. Rapid urbanization and the advent of digital
technology have impacted the personal relationships of this generations as much as
they have anywhere else in providing endless examples of alternative lifestyles and
equalization of gender roles, they often seem conflicted and unable to reconcile
themselves to a life so different from that of their parents.
Feminism has no history in China, though Mao famously said, Women hold up half
the sky. Ostensibly, during the Mao era, women and men were allotted equal jobs
an elimination of gender-based roles that have gradually resurfaces with the advent
of a market economy, particularly seen in new fashion trends and the social
pressures to marry. Today, many women are business leaders in China, but the
countrys social structure for young people consists mostly of desperate rush to
marriage, often with men needing to prove they can buy an apartment and provide
for their spouse. Fashion, which once played no part in Chinese culture (remember
the Mao suit?), is now a formidable force in young peoples lives, and, much like the
post-war era in the United States, there is pressure to return to traditional gender
roles as a sign of recovery from a period of hardship.

30

Despite the opportunities offered by a feminist program, few of the women artist in
My Generation support political action for womens rights. It is telling that this
generation has an abundance of women artists often achieving as much success as
their male colleagues. This is a distinct departure from the sorry state that existed
in the previous generation where only a handful of female artist Lin Tianmiao, Yin
Xiuzhen, and Cao Fei, to name a few were able to emerge on the global stage.
Chinese contemporary art was mostly an all boys club, shutting women out of the
picture as male artist rose to worldwide fame. Yet, the women artist I spoke with do
not see the need for a Chinese equivalent of the Guerrilla Girls. Despite admitting
that discrimination still exists, these artist told me they have little confidence that
taking action would make a difference.

Source:
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.

Urbanized Landscape
Critics are the repositories of all the emotions, doubts, and fears caused by the vast
changes in Chinese society under a new economy. In fact, the governmentmandates urbanization of China has single-handedly caused an enormous upheaval
in social relations, forcing millions who once lived in the countryside and made their
living off the land to become city dwellers who are cut off from their traditional
social structure. Once a rural society with 75 percent of the population living in the
country, China is now a fundamentally urban country with the majority of its
citizenry living in cities. By 2025, it is predicted that 70 percent of Chinas
population, or 900 million people, will live in its newly built urban centers.
Congested cities are growing denser each ear as urbanization makes its mark on
Chinas growing metropolises, where rampant growth has all but obligated the
traditional neighborhoods where hutongs, collection of grey brick houses
surrounding courtyards and alleyways, once lined narrow streets. For example in
Beijing, in the rush to upgrade the city for the 2008 Summer Olympics, more than
three million people were displaced from their homes and forced into high rises.
31

Where bicycles once ruled the streets, automobiles now circle the city on a network
of superhighways. Little is left to remind citizens of the cities of their childhoods.
Yet, the rush to build seems unstoppable.
This shift has impact artist, as reflected in the works of several artist in My
Generation. Once, Chinese landscape painting venerated natural settings
mountains, streams, pine trees, and peonies to instill a meditative state in the
viewer and reflect on issues of the day. This tradition, lasting at least a millennium,
is the epitome of Chinese classical art and to this day is revered (and collected) by
the Chinese people. It is a fundamental part of an art students education, and
many young Chinese artist would have been trained by copying these works. So, it
is inevitable that as these artists consider their contemporary landscaper urban
sprawl they must renegotiate their training and reconsider the meaning of this
genre as applied to their own personal experience.
Living in vast urban centers in order to pursue art careers, these artists have had to
invent entirely new ways of depicting their environment to convey the radical
changes that these sites embody. Cui Jie, 30, for one, lived her whole life in cities
but has seen every trace of the places she experienced in her childhood erased as
urbanization took over. In order to capture and preserve her sense of homeland, she
struggled to create a new way of painting the landscape, one as disjointed and
unstable as the places themselves. In Crossroad by Dong Feng Bei Qiao Road
(2012), she deconstructs a typical street corner with irregular tiles and corrugated
gate on an anonymous store, thus laying the groundwork for an exploration of
rectangular forms.

Source:
Pollack, Barbara, Zhenhua Li, Katherine Pill, and Todd D. Smith. My Generation:
Young Chinese Artists.
Print.

Additional Resources
Books & Articles

Beaton, Caroline. "The Oldest Millennials Just Turned 35: How Gen Y Is
Growing Up, Getting Wise And Beating The Odds." Forbes. Forbes Magazine,
02 Feb. 2016. Web. 04 Mar. 2016."

32

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinebeaton/2016/02/29/the-oldest

millennials-just-turned-35-this-is-how-gen-y-ages/#3b5870366258
Chinese Millennials - a Truly Unique Generation." China Outlook Magazine.
Web. 26 Feb. 2016. http://chinaoutlook.com/essays/chinese-millennials-a-

truly-unique-generation/
"Chinese Millennials: New Minds In An Old World." Forbes. Forbes Magazine,
31 July 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2015/07/31/chinese-millennials-new-

minds-in-an-old-world/#581a747915a8
Fish, Eric. China's Millennials: The Want Generation. Print.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442248847
Watson, Simon. "Young Chinese Artists." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-watson/young-chinese-

artists_b_5460784.html
Vine, Richard. "Art In America." A New Generation of Chinese Artists. N.p., 04
Aug. 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2016. http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-

features/interviews/talkin-bout-a-new-generation-of-chinese-artists/
"We Chat: A Dialogue in Contemporary Chinese Art - Ezra and Cecile Zilkha
Gallery - Galleries - Center for the Arts - Wesleyan University." We Chat: A
Dialogue in Contemporary Chinese Art - Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery Galleries - Center for the Arts - Wesleyan University. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/cfa/documents/2016/we%20chat_catalog_lr.pdf

Videos
A Young Chinese Artist's Generation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StnCqFAcRxM
10 seconds of safety (Series: 10 seconds of safety), 2007:
33

Artist: Jin Shan

http://www.artlinkart.com/en/artist/wrk_sr/15fbtzo
Sleeping Beauty by Ma Qiusha
From Beijing Commune
https://vimeo.com/126879304
Lu Yang
https://vimeo.com/141005910
The Time Vivarium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5iV7dVxhLI
In Frame with Sun Xun Part One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enYCM26w1Ks
In the frame: Sun Xun Part Two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uVq4hmHVD8

34