HIGHLIGHTS
February¡¯s Jianghu sub-topics:
1) No Art, no cooperation
2) Zainan - Human self-destruction
While Jianghu 1 was powerful and surprising, this second Jianghu lacked that initial energy.
Conceptionally Jianghu 2 was chaotic as the curators, who each pursued a different idea, while few artists were able to produce two pieces for one show during Chinese New Year holidays.
¡°What kind of art do we want¡± was the question at the centre of Jianghu 2 discussions. Sparking the dispute was a traditional painting, which was eventually replaced by a piece about the pressure of standardized newspaper typography suffocating personal expression and emotional writing. Made from tightly twisted newspaper strips, one neatly nailed next to the other, faint shadows of abstract Chaoshu calligraphy was merely visible. From the same artist: An enlarged copy of a traditional Shan Shui painting repainted in 16 days with the help of 16 non-artists. This had been the task implied in the curatorial idea: No Art, No Cooperation.
Some ALAB and Lijiang Studio artists¡¯ biggest Zainan was literally expressed in the piece We Want To Be Artists.
A clear tying together of the art pieces about Human Self Destruction (duality of preservation and destruction) was definitely missing. The closest we came were three pieces which were clearly addressing environmental destruction - the other pieces got piled into that topic by association:
Performing theatrical anthropology, attention definitely centered around D. before and after the opening: ¡°The factory workers watched me, the Jianghu Ming Dynasty hermit, with incredulity as I cleaned up their rubbish and greening their concrete jungle to become my dwelling place. A wandering Jianghu, I physically arranged this space to become a circle for magical performance, a camp in the woods, a fighting Jianghu arena, where animistic forces of ghost attacks tell us to stop. I was acting out a fox (from Chinese/Japanese mythology) tricking people and informing them. We all pretend we care abut nature (painted on the front of my body), but there was only smoke drawn on my back. Human endeavor is leading to human disasters and global self destruction.¡±
Inside the ALAB exhibition space, commercially bottled drinking water with diverse wetland plants labeled Jianghu Water presented a critique and reminder to preserve the wetlands (rather than avoiding them and the places where rivers and lakes come together, i.e. Jianghu as a tradition of heterogeneous voices in society). A connection to the Travel ¡®n Work photographs/documents from places across waters to create Jianghu 3.
Tiny fish struggled to survive in water-filled toilets surrounded by semi-vivid looking trees; dried-up fish decorated etch-style human portraits, and animated bottles filled with city images ambushed living gold fish in an aquarium.
A Beautiful Dream Come True in form of an adorned white gauze tent encircled by posters of a neon lit metropolis, female models, the Potala with a tulip field. The shelter¡¯s inside contained cosmetics, mirrors, candy and a TV loop-playing a report on the global green house effects.
Surrounded by images of male models, Eroticization - A Common Point glued postcards of Chinese ethnic minority women to packages of condoms. Sexuality hidden in a box - the condom continues to be a symbol for but not part of (sexual) pleasure. Was this part of an AIDS/HIV prevention campaign, promotion for safe sex or do artists have a more sensual approach to sex? [At the end of the exhibition the boys would bring home ethnic minority women]
Is art supposed to make us think about things? Do we have to work more subtle for people to actually start reflecting? Is Jianghu mere entertainment by volunteers? What are our individual and group priorities?
