Wang Qingsong supplies a wicked impression
of life in contemporary China through his personal observations
on modern culture. His computer-manipulated photographs richly
reflect a playful but serious opinion on the rapid changes
within China's society. As China's developing economy continues
to create an environment conducive to economic, cultural,
and artistic change, areas such as consumer culture have been
affected, challenging existing boundaries. Reactions to the
economic development have greatly influenced that art produced
in China within the past two decades. As a contemporary artist,
Wang Qingsong looks to the immediate environment for inspiration,
thus infusing his works with emotion generated by what is
taking place around him.
His selected artistic language is not unlike that of the
Chinese pop movement of the mid-1980s. He, too, incorporates
brand names with pop art characteristics, yet creates colorful,
kitsch, and amusing, yet intelligent comments on the changing
environment. Wang Qingsong's works exemplify a national attitude
toward contemporary life in China. Aware of the influx of
the consumer culture, the growing materialism and commercialism,
he stages scenes, which are recorded and preserved forever
in photography. A distinct aspect of his work is the use of
self-portraits as icons which question the directions in which
his culture is turning. Wang Qingsong accords himself a role
in an art that combines tradition with the sense of everyday
life.
In Requesting
Buddha No.1, he converts traditional Buddhist imagery
into a contemporary pop image. Seated upon a Coca-Cola throne,
the multi-armed Bodhisattva/artist holds named brand items
like Kodak film and Marlboro cigarettes, money, gold and CDs.
The influence of American Pop Art, consumer society and popular
mass culture are clear, but the strong, culturally specific
icons and nationalist feel offer a wholly Chinese comment
on China. Western and eastern culture are further mixed in
his bowtie and Buddhist necklace. By portraying himself as
a thousand-armed Bodhisattva holding familiar modern products,
Wang Qingsong enforces the coexistence of past and present,
art and culture, traditional and colloquial.
Wang Qingsong again portrays himself as a Buddhist figure
in The Thinker,
this time in an aura of meditative emptiness. The irony is
blatant in the McDonald's logo emblazoned on his chest. Here,
Wang Qingsong skillfully juxtaposes China's religious past
and cultural icons with popular western commercial names.
The philosophical ideas of Buddhism combined with the recognizable
McDonald's motif. He chooses to highlight commercialization
in a less than serious manner by referencing product names
with Buddhist motifs to effect a satirical comment on society
past and present. His works demonstrate the rapid growth of
consumer society, as well as the influence of western aesthetic
and material culture, which can be seen to be increasingly
dominant in China since the 1980s.
Wang Qingsong admits, " When our country put economic
development before all other national policies, China was
changed and its people were changed even more. The slogan
' one change a year, one big change in three years, and one
unidentifiable transformation in five years', demonstrates
the wide panorama of contemporary Chinese society."
He boldly displays this fact in images, which pit tradition
against modernity, fiction against reality, and desire against
necessity. Catcher,
1998, exemplifies the fusion of western and Chinese societal
desires with its reference to Christian imagery, mobile phones
and cans of Coca-Cola. For Wang Qingsong this work has a happy,
contemporary feeling, suggested by the colorful butterflies
floating around the Christ figure -- again Wang Qingsong himself
-- who hangs before a beautiful sunset.
With a strong awareness of the social changes China is experiencing,
Wang Qingsong and his contemporaries confront these ideas
and blend them with popular culture, producing works that
force the viewer to consider what is going on in present-day
society. China's push for modernization has not only affected
the economy, but also cultural identity and art. The concerns
facing artists today are inevitably influenced by this phenomenon.
Wang Qingsong's works offer a social commentary with personal
views on change, encompassing the judgment and critique of
an emerging, global culture in an intelligible and at times
amusing way.
(Nicky Combs, manager of Red Gate Gallery, China. Curator
of Chinese contemporary art shows. She writes extensively
for art magazines in the world.)
This article is printed in the catalogue of Red Hot, Red Gate
Gallery, 2001.
