The Ewing Gallery in the Art and Architecture Building is now displaying a fascinating Chinese art exhibit, featuring works of a select group of modern artists. “Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US” debuted August 24 and will run through October 11.
“The most recognizable artist on display is probably Xiaoze Xie,” Collections Manager Cindy Spangler said. Xiaoze Xie will appear on September 7 at 7 p.m. in room 109 of the Art and Architecture Building to lecture and discuss.
When asked how American art fundamentally differed from Chinese art, Spangler responded, “The art educators (in China) seem to stress formal training, but the contemporary art on display really is universal. In a way, it bridges the gap between the West and the East.”
A major example of such a bridge can be found just inside the exhibit. The work is Qui Zhijie’s “Grinding Tombstones.” The story behind this piece, according to guide sources, is remarkable. Initially the artist took the tombstones of an American child and a Chinese man and ground them together until the writing faded on both. The piece represents the anonymity of death and how it leads to a loss of identity.
There are two other examples of the “moving picture show,” cause-and-effect type art progression. Liang Juhi’s “Colonize Space,” “New Building II” and “New Space II” show the evolution of culture in Juhi’s hometown, according to the guidebook. In each subsequent piece, there are bigger buildings suffocating the culture.
Behind the other piece might be the most captivating story in the exhibit. Guide sources detail the story behind Hai Bo’s four photographs, two old and two new. The old photographs show three young sisters smiling, as well as five men uneasy about being in Vietnam. Bo tracked down the survivors of the photos and took new photos, one showing two elderly women and the other with only one of the five soldiers. What is striking about the photos isn’t exactly who the survivors are, but who is missing. The new or “after” photos were orchestrated to show as much similarly to the old or “before” photos as possible. The losses appear even more glaring and saddening.
One literal interpretation of “Regeneration” is Al Weiwei’s relentlessly abstract “Table with Three Legs” and “Slanted Table.” On the surface, these displays seem ordinary, but the gallery catalog reveals Weiwei’s true intention. Weiwei felt that by changing an ordinary object slightly, he could “regenerate” it in a sense into a completely other object with a completely different function. In a way, such transformations show the instability of life.
The art on display ranges from morbid landscapes like Yun-Fei Ji’s intentionally ironic “The Picnic” to Cai Jin’s personal, beautiful piece, with only reds on a plant. The pieces range from the happy and optimistic “1972 Six Years Old at Home in Beijing” to the disgruntled and hopeless “My America (Hard to Acclimatize)”. At their core, nearly every piece seems to cause a shift in thought process away from the normal.
Also in the exhibit is a 58-minute program, comprised of several different Chinese short films. These might be the most shocking of anything shown, particularly the rebellious “Bored Youth” from Zhao Liange. The film follows a young Chinese youth as he heads through ruins and proceeds to break everything in his path. True to its title, his only real motivation seems to be that he’s bored. What makes this film stand out is its shaky cinematography and spooky soundtrack that plays throughout. The screen only focuses on a small portion at a time and shifts without warning. Other films include the musical “Architecture Immanence” and the topical “October-December 2001,” which touches on newspaper headlines following the tragic events of 9/11. The films range in runtime.
For more information, navigate to http://www.ewing-gallery.org or call 974-3200.