{"id":12014,"date":"2011-11-25T13:13:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/?p=12014"},"modified":"2023-05-02T13:21:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T13:21:26","slug":"follow-follow-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/zh-hant\/follow-follow-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow! Follow! Follow!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cFollow! Follow! Follow!\u201d <\/strong>group exhibition with Ji Wenyu & Zhu Weibing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ShanghART Gallery<\/a><\/strong> (50 Moganshan Road, Building 16, Shanghai). Sep 6 \u2013 Oct 8, 2011. Opening: Tuesday, Sep 6, 5 pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is trite to say that Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing\u2019s dolls are derived from the China\u2019s Cynical Realism and Political Pop movements of the past 20 years (Ji Wenyu, b. 1959, Shanghai; Zhu Weibing b.1971, Heilongjiang). Their social and political critique of China\u2019s command-consumer economy is plain to see. But that\u2019s not everything. Another side of the couple\u2019s work is the Chinese character. In fact, their political pop critique is really only a sub-branch of this overall theme, clearly demonstrated at their recent show at ShanghART in Shanghai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A square chamber is a recurring stage on which to play with the \u201ccharacter\u201d theme. An earlier work depicted a family \u2014 father, mother, child \u2014 gazing out of a window at the wider world (the room has no door). In the current exhibition, two works reprise the square. \u201cImage\u201d recalls China\u2019s gigantic, almost bombastic, red pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. A series of screened rooms, declining in size, enclose nothing at all, an empty room, but outside everyone lines up to have their photo taken in front of it \u2014 I was there! (but where is there?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cOrange Alert,\u201d a double line of soldiers, cradling their guns, guards not an empty room but a discarded tissue. The ground shakes to their marching, or are they just shaking nervously? The mechanical rattle and clunk and jittery mini-soldiers are funny in a wind-up toy way. But the discarded tissue is more enigmatic and troublesome. Which tears did it dry? (Or nose did it blow?) And why is it being protected? What emotions are being controlled and by whom? \u00a0(I am also tempted to note that the soldier\u2019s form nested squares, like the word \u201chui\u201d \u56de or \u201creturn.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a curious effect of the last 200 years of China\u2019s history that the world\u2019s largest populous is also its most introspective \u2014 alternatively proud and self-conscious, solicitous and egotistical, anxious and arrogant (I do not ignore the foibles of other nations here \u2014 it is simply not the subject of this article: space is limited!). For while it is an ancient nation of 5,000 years history, it is also only 60 years old \u2014 a nation emerging from a difficult childhood into a talented teenager, flexing its strength but still feeling its way \u2014 traditional and modern, conservative and creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These contradictions fascinate Ji and Zhu. They understand that there have been many Chinas \u2014 those of emperors, scholars, monks, bureaucrats, peasants, soldiers and, more recently, a broad middle-class \u2014 but now all these forms are available to all. The delusion of control remains controllability \u2014 it has deep resonance in Chinese history \u2014 but amused chatter from Ji and Zhu, the eternal children laughing at the Emperor\u2019s parade, can break that spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing are subtle humorists, unlike their more acidic cousins, such as the couple Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, but not dissimilar to the dry commentary of Lu Xun. \u201cLanding 1\u201d shows a string of paratroopers landing sequentially on a barren little island, immediately erecting a ladder, and climbing up it to gaze through binoculars to the next target.  \u201cClimb Up, Walk Steadily\u201d has their little dolls doing just that, into the rafters of the gallery. \u201cClimbing Up the Mountain, Climbing Down the Mountain\u201d is the grand set piece of the exhibition. Two narrow bolts of cloth create a path for countless grey figures to crawl up and back down, before doing it all over again, like the English children\u2019s song about a pointless noblemen pointlessly preoccupying his soldiers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grand Old Duke of York, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had 10,000 men, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He marched them up to the top of the hill, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he marched them down again. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they were down, they were down. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when they were up, they were up. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when they were only halfway up <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were neither up nor down.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again referencing the mountain landscapes of the literati, \u201cClimbing\u201d also recalls Xu Bing\u2019s now iconic \u201cBook from the Sky\u201d, but not necessarily with reverence. The patience required of such needlework is astounding (Zhu is a former fashion designer, turned art professor). This is handwork, albeit by many hands \u2014 not the infinitely refined brushwork of\u00a0Shanshui<\/em>\u00a0masters \u2014 but as precise. These dolls are wry but also comforting and comfortingly homely; that is their appeal and lure. But how grey all these figures are \u2014 the grey of un-primed canvas and other things too, like life itself and winter days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another show by the artists was also held at Ausin Tung Gallery in Melbourne, though not the couple\u2019s first outing in Australia. Their \u201cPeople holding flowers\u201d (2007) \u2014 100 besuited, pink-faced men (all men), holding up long-stemmed flowers recalling\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0campaign \u2014 was one of the centerpieces of the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2009-2010 and at ShanghART in 2007. The current show, though, aims to introduce the works in a developmental context, including various preparatory drawings, including designs on the back of envelopes. In addition, it includes the joyous and confounding cabbage-floral bouquet, a big ball of flowers with heads poking out of it to see the view. Also present is one of their figure-pyramids \u2014 a joke on the reductive-ness of reproduction? Its counterpart may be seen in the ShanghArt show \u2014 a baby wagon exploding with grasping limbs but not a head to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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