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| Shen Shaomin, Standard Portrait Mao Zedong, 2009, Courtesy M+ Sigg Collection, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation and National Portrait Gallery. |
On September 10 Ai Weiwei wrote in the Guardian, timed to coincide with the '
Art of Change: New Directions from China' exhibition at Southbank in London, that there is no artworld in China, and no contemporary art, due to the restrictions on artists' freedom of speech. In speaking about the work of the new media artists represented in the show, he said, "
It is like a restaurant in Chinatown that sells all the standard dishes, such as kung pao chicken and sweet and sour pork. People will eat it and say it is Chinese, but it is simply a consumerist offering...."
You can read Ai Weiwei's article here: Ai Weiwei: China's Artworld Does Not Exist.
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Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds, Hand-Painted Porcelain, image reproduced courtesy of
White Rabbit Gallery |
Having seen the new show of contemporary art from China at White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, which includes a pile of those extremely famous Ai Weiwei sunflower seeds, I have to disagree with the world's most famous dissident and iconoclast. And then having seen the 'Go Figure!' exhibition of contemporary Chinese portraiture from the Sigg collection (a genre which is interpreted very loosely indeed by the curator, thank heavens) at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, again I must disagree with Ai. Contemporary art in China is alive and well despite the many strictures faced by artists and curators. This exhibition also includes a work by Ai Weiwei - his hyper-realist sculptural portrait of Uli Sigg reading a newspaper.
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| Ai Weiwei, Newspaper Reader, Courtesy M+ Sigg Collection, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation and National Portrait Gallery.
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As so often in China's past, artists manage to circumvent restrictions and no-go areas with clever double-coding and veiled layers of meaning. One just has to look at Old People's Home, a hyper-realist (and hyper-active) sculpture in the SCAF exhibition to read it as a barbed comment on the rule of old men, and the fleeting nature of power and youthful vigour.
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| Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, Old People's Home, 2007, mixed media installation. Detail. Courtesy M+ Sigg Collection, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation and National Portrait Gallery. |
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Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, Old People's Home, 2007, mixed media installation. Courtesy M+ Sigg Collection, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation and National Portrait Gallery.
I have written about my responses to this exhibition, and to the talk given by Uli Sigg at the Gallery, in a conversation with highly respected curator Claire Roberts, in The Art Life in my piece 'Yasser Arafat has escaped twice today'. Follow the link to read the whole article: http://theartlife.com.au/?p=7027
I loved the show at White Rabbit Gallery, 'Double Take', and have written 2 reviews - follow the links for The Art Life and for Daily Serving.
Lu Xinjian, City DNA Beijing, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 400 cm, image reproduced courtesy of
White Rabbit Gallery
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