Shanzhai and ArtBeijing
Round two of the Beijing art fairs opened on April 30th, and the buzz in the art scene confirms, ArtBeijing has surpassed CIGE, providing a better show all around. While the unofficial theme at CIGE was “fear,” ArtBeijing has embraced the spirit of Shanzhai!
These skulls by Fang Shengyi 房圣易 seem to be popping up everywhere lately, a pyramid of at least 50 similar skulls was spotted at the young artists portion of 《Reshaping History 改造历史》 that opened last weekend. Each skull is mounted with 3700 Czech-crystal “diamonds” and took ten workers more than 45 days to complete all these crystal-studded metal alloy skulls.
Here they are again, lower mandibles disjointed and floating in a pile of red and white sand. The title of this installation is “Original Sin” 《原罪》. The artist’s statement reads “a lateral reconsideration towards the frantic pace of economic growth in a socialist motherland… The utilizing, plagiarizing and plundering of intellectual property of advanced civilizations by developing countries equals a bald-faced exploitation of developed culture under the premise of identification…”
Let’s embrace brevity: It’s Shanzhai contemporary art!
This random installation could be a commentary on the art fair, perhaps we could interpret it as the “shanzhai fair within a fair.”
Years later, shanzhai Keith Haring appears in Beijing. Sorry, didn’t catch this fellow’s name, but thanks to Liang Shuhan for spotting him.
Liang Yuanwei’s 梁远苇 Telephone is a brilliant blend of vintage and shanzhai. An old telephone has been fitted with a cheap mp3 player of the shanzhai variety; insert the flash disk and press play to hear the sweet melodies of your choice. The artist has chosen a nostalgic blend of oldies from the US and China.
For a fee, the “avantgarde artist” Chen Yi 陈曦 will put your photograph on the currency of your choice. Carnival games? Shanzhai cash? I’d love to sign up for the 500 RMB note, too bad RMB China’s currency is not an option… pretty sure that using China’s money for art works is a categorical no-no.
I guess when you can’t say what you really want to, Shanzhai is clearly the next best choice.
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[…]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[…]……
Powered by FireStats