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Whiz-bang
In the masculine and explosive world of commercial Chinese artists like Ai Weiwei and Cai Guo-Qiang, one could be forgiven for thinking that art in the mainland is the prerequisite of the male gender. It still is. But recently female Chinese artists have begun to emerge. Only one of them is an outright star; Xiao Lu. She shot to fame overnight in China’s art world in 1989 by firing a loaded gun at her work Dialogue during the government-sponsored 'China Avant-Garde Art' exhibition at Beijing's National Art Gallery, just four months prior the Tiananmen Square debacle. Her gesture wasn’t political, philosophical, or economic, but emotional. She’d had a tiff with her artist partner and her frustration was self-reflexive. Her subsequent work, 15 Gunshots (1989-2003) [above] with its confrontational, repetitive pop spirit – a bullet-hole in the glass of each of the 15 photographs – is an Orson Wellesian, Warholian-inspired whiz-bang scene-stealer. She’s angry yes, and hurt, and seemingly bent on self-or-somebody-else’s destruction.
Pearl Lam Galleries' Dust from the Heart exhibition in Hong Kong features Xiao's work and four other leading contemporary female artists in China; Juju Sun, Cui Xiuwen, He Chengyao and Cai Jin. Ranging from video and installation to photography and painting, themes of feminine sexuality, stereotyping, fertility, labour discrimination, death and decay abound, set against the backdrop of 20 years of cataclysmic change in China. “These artists are willing to openly put forward their sensibilities and experiences, providing an exceptional insight into the workings of female artists in China today,” says gallery founder Pearl Lam.
The works – from Juju’s hard to read but easy to feel abstract landscapes, to Cai Jin’s more literal renderings of fertility and nature, and from He’s naked portrait and performance work Illusion, 2002 [below], to Cui’s Ladies Room prostitution video – suggest that more than being by and about women, the desire to be individual is their defining characteristic.
Showing at Pearl Lam Galleries: 601-605, 6/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder St, Central, Hong Kong. Until October 11, 2012. Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm.
Images: Xiao Lu, 15 Gunshots (1989-2003), 15 photographs each 100 x 45cm; He Chengyao, Illusion, 2002, Photograph, 483 x 28
Whiz-bang
In the masculine and explosive world of commercial Chinese artists like Ai Weiwei and Cai Guo-Qiang, one could be forgiven for thinking that art in the mainland is the prerequisite of the male gender. It still is. But recently female Chinese artists have begun to emerge. Only one of them is an outright star; Xiao Lu. She shot to fame overnight in China’s art world in 1989 by firing a loaded gun at her work Dialogue during the government-sponsored 'China Avant-Garde Art' exhibition at Beijing's National Art Gallery, just four months prior the Tiananmen Square debacle. Her gesture wasn’t political, philosophical, or economic, but emotional. She’d had a tiff with her artist partner and her frustration was self-reflexive. Her subsequent work, 15 Gunshots (1989-2003) [above] with its confrontational, repetitive pop spirit – a bullet-hole in the glass of each of the 15 photographs – is an Orson Wellesian, Warholian-inspired whiz-bang scene-stealer. She’s angry yes, and hurt, and seemingly bent on self-or-somebody-else’s destruction.
Pearl Lam Galleries' Dust from the Heart exhibition in Hong Kong features Xiao's work and four other leading contemporary female artists in China; Juju Sun, Cui Xiuwen, He Chengyao and Cai Jin. Ranging from video and installation to photography and painting, themes of feminine sexuality, stereotyping, fertility, labour discrimination, death and decay abound, set against the backdrop of 20 years of cataclysmic change in China. “These artists are willing to openly put forward their sensibilities and experiences, providing an exceptional insight into the workings of female artists in China today,” says gallery founder Pearl Lam.
The works – from Juju’s hard to read but easy to feel abstract landscapes, to Cai Jin’s more literal renderings of fertility and nature, and from He’s naked portrait and performance work Illusion, 2002 [below], to Cui’s Ladies Room prostitution video – suggest that more than being by and about women, the desire to be individual is their defining characteristic.
Showing at Pearl Lam Galleries: 601-605, 6/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder St, Central, Hong Kong. Until October 11, 2012. Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm.
Images: Xiao Lu, 15 Gunshots (1989-2003), 15 photographs each 100 x 45cm; He Chengyao, Illusion, 2002, Photograph, 483 x 28
