Archive
MIXED MAZE
A Group Photographic Exhibition
Featuring work by Jia Youguang, Liu Bolin, Liu Jin, Xu Changchang and Yang Yongliang
27th November 2008 - 16th January 2009
China is in transition. Everything is in a constant state of flux and the feeling of displacement this causes is a recurrent theme in contemporary Chinese art. Over the last decade, photography has become an important medium for its ability to record and propagate the changes in society's fabric as well as to portray very personal stories. The works in this exhibition form deeply personal narratives; the artists' creations are not restricted to a single model or school of thought, but seek to express individuality and a distinct sense of subjectivity. In order to achieve this, they utilize the different applications of new media that are available to them. Thus China's art today is like a "mixed maze". Different perspectives (informed by upbringing, schooling, personal preferences), lead to diverse artistic results. Some conform to tendencies of the era or the vicissitudes of Chinese social psychology, some indulge in stereotypes (without progressing the genre), and as result their work does not reflection the real significance of contemporary art, but rather confuses and tangles as the walls of the maze thicken and ensnare. At it stands today, China's contemporary art is at risk of disintegration, unless a multitude of widespread copycat imagery is eliminated as patrons grow tired of their faddish conspicuousness. It is at this time, when history comes to a critical impasse, that the moment has come for new artists to seek fresh expressions to portray their perspective, and find a way to escape the maze.
TO READ A REVIEW OF THE SHOW CLICK HERE
68-08
A solo exhibition by Qiu Jie
11th June - 13th September 2008
The Red Mansion Foundation is pleased to present an exhibition of works by the artist Qiu Jie at its space in 46 Portland Place. In October 2007, The Red Mansion Foundation invited Qiu Jie to London to take part in an artist residency as part of our wider programme of exchange activities. Qiu Jie stayed in London for one month and produced a new series of work based on his encounters and impressions of the city. This new exhibition will consist of the series of work that was created as a result of this residency.
Qiu Jie was born in 1961 in Shanghai. He graduated from the School of Decorative Arts in Shanghai in 1981, and then furthered his education at the School of Fine Arts in Geneva, in 1994. Qiu's work is exhibited regularly at an international level, in Switzerland, France and China. He has received many prizes and distinctions, including a scholarship by Cite des Arts in Paris, and the Federal Fine Arts Prize in 1995. His work continues to be acquired by numerous contemporary art foundations (such as the Saatchi Gallery), museums, and private collectors. Recent exhibitions of his include a solo show at the Arrario Gallery in Beijing in 2008 and the Shanghai Biennale in 2006.
Qiu Jie's works consists of painstakingly intricate pencil drawings executed on a massive scale, some reaching up to 10 metres in width, and a series of portraits, over eighty in number, reflecting those people most important and influential in his life. Taking anything between six months and a year to complete, Qiu's pencil drawings are works of substantial achievement and endeavour. Yet despite their vast size, the breath taking detail and agile delicacy of these drawings makes for a very subtle and tantalising visual delight. The viewer is teased, our eye drawn on a diverse path through a melting pot of iconography, from titillating images of female sexuality to James Bond, from Pink Floyd album covers to Cultural Revolution soldiers. There is a playful and irreverent quality to his images; the convergence of culturally iconographic traditions from East and West creating a unique style, much like China itself. Yet when we look to the creator of the works themselves for some understanding, we are diverted once again - Qiu jokingly refers to them as "just high quality wallpaper".
Despite the more personal aspects to his work, especially the series of paintings that focus on important people in his life, including his son, Qiu Jie still refers to himself as an outsider - his name is in fact a pseudonym, meaning "foreigner", or "hermit". There may seem to be a dichotomy then, for an artist to take a name that means "outsider", yet whose work is deeply informed by tradition. One might wonder what role does tradition have in an increasingly rootless and scattered global culture? This perception of the world does not hold true for Qiu Jie however; his casual reply is not to worry, for no one can truly escape their roots.
DREAM 02
10 October - 27 October 2002
The Bargehouse and the.gallery@oxo
Following on from the success of DREAM 01, this exhibition featured approximately 20 artists from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
All of the artists have exhibited regularly, many of them internationally, and some at highly prestigious events like the Venice Biennale, but this was the first time that they all have been brought together. The exhibition presented a broad range of media including photography, installation, video, oil on canvas, lacquer and collage, wood cut, acrylic on canvas, sculpture and performance art.
DREAM 01
11 October - 21 October 2001
Chinese Art in the 21st Century @ The Atlantis
The exhibition showcased 75 works by 20 of the most exciting artists from China.
As China adopts some of the most fundamental characteristics of a capitalist society, from mass advertising to the emergence of nouveau riches, from shopping malls to skyscrapers, the pace of change is simply bewildering. DREAM was both a product and a reflection of this extraordinary stage in China's history.
The works we gathered together, incorporating a broad range of media (oil, wood-cut, ink, sculpture, photography, video, installation and performance art), provide a cultural synopsis of contemporary Chinese urban society.
China has changed immensely over the past three decades, and this is reflected in the development of its art forms. The end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, followed by Deng Xiao Ping's open-door policy in the early 1980's led to a revolution in the Chinese art establishment. The floodgates of information were opened and this exposed Chinese society to half a century of Western art and literature in one measure.
Chinese cultural policy has become increasingly tolerant, creating more room for artistic expression, with the result that there are now several generations of artists each with differing experiences and perspectives of China's recent history.
The floodgates of information were opened and this exposed Chinese society to half a century of Western art and literature in one measure. Chinese cultural policy has become increasingly tolerant, creating more room for artistic expression, with the result that there are now several generations of artists each with differing experiences and perspectives of China's recent history.
Collectively, the artists are unified by their newly found freedom to focus on self-evaluation, exploring questions about individuality and the new consumer society that they live in.
Some of the Chinese avant-garde are creating works that would be prohibited in the UK - "Many of the works by these artists make Hirst and Emin look tame..." comments Kwok. "They are part of the extreme and urgent artistic debate that has emerged after the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution in China - in fact, it's probably the richest and most engaging artistic debate currently taking place anywhere in the world."
DREAM 01 represented the first opportunity for the British public to gain an insight into the whole spectrum of contemporary Chinese Art.
