{"id":13819,"date":"2014-07-17T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/?p=13819"},"modified":"2023-10-10T05:59:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T05:59:38","slug":"lu-chao-black-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/zh-hans\/lu-chao-black-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Lu Chao: \u201cBlack Box\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lu Chao \u201cBlack Box\u201d<\/strong>
Hadrien de Montferrand <\/strong>(98 Art District, No 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing), March 11\u2013April 8, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smile is a clich\u00e9 of contemporary art in China. Apparently, anyway. Geng Jianyi (b. 1962) was probably the first to employ it, in works such as \u201cThe First Series of Eight Steps\u201d (1991), where the line between ecstasy and anguish in his self-portraits is indistinguishable. A similar approach was taken by Yue Minjun (b. 1962), who made laughing self-portraits his signature and he is still haunted by them. Meanwhile, the masks of Zeng Fanzhi (b. 1964) sometimes laugh but not always. Often the laughing face is interpreted in the West as simply an ironic pop-gesture, and increasingly as an empty gesture. Often artists in China are happy to let this misinterpretation slip by, because the purpose of the laughing face is precisely to mask. And there really have been a LOT of smirks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lu<\/a>
Lu Chao \u201cBlack Box\u201d (detail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The smile is generally ambiguous as to meaning (thinking of the Mona Lisa), whereas depictions of laughter, when not simply cartoonish and idiotic, are ambiguous as to feeling\u2014ecstasy, agony, madness, death. This distinction was concisely articulated by the critic Lessing in his essay on the Laoco\u00f6n (1766)*, wherein he noted that in the famous Roman sculpture of the Trojan priest Laoco\u00f6n and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being overcome by sea serpents, the figures faces are relatively composed with mouths not wide open. Lessing argued that the artistic impact of the frozen scene would have been lessened had Laoco\u00f6n and his sons been depicted with wildly gaping mouths, essentially making them look less human, less god-like, more animal-like. Considering Munch\u2019s \u201cThe Scream\u201d (1893) and Francis Bacon\u2019s series of screaming popes, Lessing maybe had a point\u2014or perhaps missed one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lu Chao\u2019s \u201cBlack Box\u201d exhibition earlier this year raises the point in another way. The exhibition revolved around an operatic brush and watercolor forest tableaux in which severed heads are piled up and precariously stacked to form totem poles\u2014not actually dead, mind you, as they all seem to be quite aware of their situation. Scurrying around on the ground, working at some of the heads, are anonymous and ant-like figures. Each head, though, has personality. Some smile even. More importantly, they are caricatures\u2014really likenesses of familiar types of people; your aunt, your teacher, your neighbor. There is a scene in Salman Rushdie\u2019s Midnight\u2019s Children<\/em> where one of the protagonists has a conversation on a battlefield with the stacked heads of his former friends. Are we laughing or crying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe horror! the horror!\u201d are Kurtz\u2019s dying words in Conrad\u2019s\u00a0Heart of Darkness<\/em>, their meaning left unexplained and uncertain. The absurdity and ambiguity of \u201cBlack Box\u201d work in similar ways. The theatricality of the forest setting, the moody light, the quiet shadows, set us up for a sublime release, the fabulously romantic delusion of nature as pure, unadulterated and god-given. Move closer though, and we meet its ridiculous, disembodied inhabitants. Death is stupid (and don\u2019t we know it today). All those caricatures\u2014all those characters\u2014rendered naturalistically would not have more meaning. Deft brushwork makes it all seem so seriously funny.\u00a0Do you recognize anyone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lu Chao \u201cBlack Box\u201d (detail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lu Chao \u201cBlack Box\u201d installation view (image courtesy the artist and Hadrien de Montferrand)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*Full title: Laoco\u00f6n. An essay upon the limits of painting and poetry. With remarks illustrative of various points in the history of ancient art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lu Chao \u201cBlack Box\u201dHadrien de Montferran … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLu Chao: \u201cBlack Box\u201d - \u71c3\u70b9 Ran Dian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lu Chao: \u201cBlack Box\u201d - \u71c3\u70b9 Ran Dian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lu Chao \u201cBlack Box\u201dHadrien de Montferran … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u71c3\u70b9 Ran Dian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-17T05:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-10T05:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/006.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lien\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u4f5c\u8005\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lien\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"\u9884\u8ba1\u9605\u8bfb\u65f6\u95f4\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\u5206\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lien\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/#\/schema\/person\/52a3fdee246825a3356b50e0c44bbeeb\"},\"headline\":\"Lu Chao: \u201cBlack Box\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-17T05:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-10T05:59:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/\"},\"wordCount\":590,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"zh-CN\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/lu-chao-black-box\/\",\"name\":\"Lu Chao: \u201cBlack Box\u201d - 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