White Rabbit Gallery
Stage 6 Visual Arts Case Study
Guo Jian 郭健: Domains of Dissidence and Dreams
“We can't just watch it happen over and over again, we have to make a
noise to let them know people are angry now.”
Guo Jian, Picturesque Scenery No.26, 2011 - 2012, inkjet pigment print, 500 x 32cm, 10 panels each 96 x160cm,
image courtesy the artist and White Rabbit Gallery
Artists’ Practice
The Postmodern Frame: appropriation, re-contextualisation, satire, social comment
The Cultural Frame: artists’ experiences of historical and social forces shape their practice
Conceptual Framework: Artist/Artwork/World relationships
Outcomes: P7, P8, P9, H7, H8, H9
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This Case Study is focused on:
Reading and analysing extracts of art critical writing
Applying the cultural frame to investigate how the practices of artists are shaped by the events
and social and political systems they experience
Understanding how contemporary artists work in ways informed by globalisation and postcolonialism, incorporating theories of visual culture, diaspora, and transnational discourse
Developing art critical writing skills in analysis, interpretation and evaluation of selected artworks
Comparative writing – learning how to compare works (by the same or different artists) in order
to make inferences and deductions
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Note to teachers and students
This Case Study focuses on the practices of the artist and the critic. In the first instance, students
encounter the artworks themselves, in the gallery and/or in reproduction or online. A sequence
of learning activities begins with a discussion of selected works and video clips, followed by
examples of art writing and artist interviews, with questions. These provide information about
the artist but are also models of critical practice. Whole class and small group tasks are
suggested, with links to other artists, art movements and/or critical theories. This Case Study is
designed in a sequence of four parts, from which teachers and students may select any or all.
1. An introduction to the life and art practice of Guo Jian
2. Voices of Resistance: Art and Social Intervention, a comparative study
3. Landscapes of Lost Dreams: A Lament for the Natural World
4. extended response question, with marking guidelines, requires students to develop an
argument that demonstrates their understanding of the artist’s practice. The Case Study may be implemented over 4 -10 hours, depending on teacher and student
interests and needs
Teaching / Learning
This Case Study may be approached in a range of different ways, depending on the particular
interests of teachers and students. Strategies may include:
o Class and/or small group discussion of Guo Jian and a comparison with other artists and their
working methods
o Independent research or collaborative investigations
o Debates or dialogues exploring Guo Jian’s approach to satire and social comment
o The creation of student blogs or websites
Guo Jian, 1979, 2011, oil on canvas, 200 x 250 cm, image courtesy the artist
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Part 1. Understanding Guo Jian’s Practice
From Red Guard, PLA soldier, propaganda painter to dissident artist
Born 1962, Duyun, Guizhou, China. Currently lives and works in Australia
Glossary of terms:
Red Guard: Groups of militant university and high school students were formed into paramilitary units
during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). These young people often wore green jackets similar to the
uniforms of the Chinese army at the time, with red armbands attached to one of the sleeves. They were
formed under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1966 in order to help the Chinese
leader Mao Zedong fight “revisionist” authorities — those party leaders Mao considered as being
insufficiently revolutionary. Mao was making a bid to regain control of the CCP, but the Red Guards who
responded to his summons believed they were revolutionary rebels dedicated to the destruction of all
remnants of the old culture, as well as purging all supposedly “bourgeois” elements within the
government. Several million Red Guards journeyed to Beijing in eight massive demonstrations late in
1966, and the total number of Red Guards throughout the country may have reached 11 million at some
point. While engaging in marches, meetings, and frenzied propagandizing, Red Guard units attacked and
persecuted local party leaders as well as schoolteachers and school officials, other intellectuals, property
owners, and people with traditional views.
The Cultural Revolution: a social-political movement in China from 1966 - 1976. Set into motion by leader
Mao Zedong, its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology in the country by purging
traditional elements from Chinese society, marking the consolidation of Mao Zedong’s power. The
movement paralysed China politically and significantly affected the country economically and socially.
The Cultural Revolution was launched in May 1966, after Mao alleged that capitalist elements had
infiltrated the government and society at large. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior
officials. Millions of people were persecuted in the violent struggles that ensued across the country, and
suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, beatings, arbitrary imprisonment, torture,
sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced,
most notably the transfer of millions of urban youth sent to work in rural regions. Historical relics and
artefacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were ransacked. Many writers, artists and
intellectuals were imprisoned or exiled.
Ulyssean Siren: in Greek mythology the sirens were half-bird, half-woman; creatures who lured sailors
to their deaths with their seductively sweet singing. According to Greek writer Homer, in ‘The Odyssey’, Ulysses wanted to hear their song even though he knew it would prevent him from thinking clearly. He
put wax in his sailors’ ears so they could not hear, and made them tie him to the mast of his ship so that he could not jump into the sea. When he heard the sirens’ song he was driven temporarily insane and struggled to break free – his overwhelming desire to join the sirens would have meant his death.
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Tiananmen Square: On June 4, 1989, troops of the People’s Liberation Army entered Beijing, ordered
to quell the demonstrations by student-led pro-democracy demonstrators who had occupied Tiananmen
Square for 7 weeks. The government ordered the enforcement of martial law. The crackdown became
known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre as troops in armoured vehicles inflicted casualties on unarmed
civilians. The number of civilian deaths is unknown, but is estimated at anywhere between hundreds and
thousands. The Chinese government condemned the protests as a counter-revolutionary riot, and
discussion and remembrance of the events is forbidden in China.
Guo Jian, and his art, are products of the last fifty years of violence and tumultuousness in China, from
the Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s and 70s, to the Sino-Vietnam war at the beginning of the 80’s, and through to the horrors of the Tiananmen Square incident.
At the end of the 1970’s at age seventeen, he enlisted in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during a recruitment drive to support the Sino-Vietnamese war, initiated by the country’s then leader Deng
Xiaoping. The grim reality of his military experiences permanently transformed him from the idealistic
young promoter of the ideology of the army and communist party as he served as a propaganda poster
painter. As with many of his peers, his military experiences left him both cynical and with a new found
critical perspective. After leaving the army he returned to his hometown and was the propaganda officer
in a transport company. His time in the army would later serve as fertile source material for his
artwork. After leaving the army, Guo Jian enrolled in the National Minorities “Minzu” University and studied art in Beijing during China’s “85 New Wave” art movement period. His perspective turned a full 180 degrees as a result of the horrors that he and his classmates witnessed on the streets of Beijing in
June 1989.
Guo Jian’s art is not about preaching or converting others but rather a reflection of his observations from both sides of propaganda and art. As a result of his firsthand perspective both from within the propaganda
function, as well as from the outside looking in, he also sees abundant commonalities in the Chinese and
Western approaches to persuasion. Throughout his body of work, Guo Jian’s art focuses on the deployment of the female celebrity, as model patriot, a tool of manipulation and Ulyssean Siren. His work
points to the commonalities between the implied purity of the Chinese army’s Entertainment Soldier (文
工团) performers and their Western counterparts. He toys with the overt innocence and the underlying
eroticism and desirability of women utilised to manipulate and motivate men in uniform and in society
as a whole. He delves into the sexualisation of propaganda, heroism, patriotism and persuasion. What
first appears as humour is actually a lament at the use of sex to seduce men to war.
Guo Jian’s work not only relates to his own tribulations but to themes, experiences and things left unsaid
that are perhaps universal to soldiers in any army. His subjects wrestle with the inherent contradictions:
high ideals verses blighted reality, heroism verses villainy, patriotism and valour verses betrayal and
loathing. He speaks of the lines easily blurred between terror, euphoria, aggression and lust. He also nods
to the commonality and empathy of soldiers across borders. Soldiers don’t start wars, governments do; but it is the soldiers who serve and suffer the horrors.
(from Guo Jian’s web site: http://Guo Jianart.com/)
After living in Australia for many years, from 1992, part of a diaspora of Chinese artists, Guo Jian returned
to China. In 2014, he was arrested, detained and then deported, after giving a frank interview to the
Financial Times in the tense lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. He had
added 350 pounds of minced pork to a diorama of Tiananmen Square - featuring bulldozers and
jackhammers - that he had been working on over a long period of time. The Sydney Morning Herald
reported: “Police arrived in two cars and took him away on Sunday. By Friday, his visa had been cancelled
and he will be effectively expelled from China after serving a 15-day period of ‘administrative detention’.
His work now lies in a crumpled mess of plywood and Styrofoam; heavily symbolic, says neighbour and
fellow artist Wu Yiqiang, of his close friend’s trampled artistic expression and right to free speech.” [Diaspora: the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland.]
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Guo Jian, The Square, 2014, a diorama of Tiananmen Square covered in 160kg of minced pork,
image courtesy the artist
Useful References and Resources
Chiu, Melissa (2007) Breakout – Chinese art outside china, Milano, Edizioni Charta, ISBN
8881586398
McDonald, John (2004) STUDIO, Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity, Singapore, Tien
Wah Press, ISBN 978-981-05-7456-6
Wu Hung (Editor) Chinese Art at the Crossroads: Between Past and Future, Between East and
West, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN-10: 9628638815
O’Dea, Madeleine (2008) Southern Skies, Chinese Artists in Australia, Australian Embassy
Beijing, Beijing Artron Colour Printing
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/8f280a54-e5b5-11e3-a7f5-00144feabdc0.html#slide0 the interview
with the Financial Times that led to Guo Jian’s arrest
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2014/06/02/china-artist-arrested-guo-jian-mckenzie.cnn TV
news report of Guo Jian’s arrest and detention
http://Guo Jianart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Guo-Jian-Artist-Profile-Magazine-Paul-Flynn3-February-2014.f-copy.pdf an interview with Artist Profile magazine
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/02/australian-artist-guo-jian-arrestedtiananmen-anniversary an account of Guo Jian’s 2014 arrest and detention
http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-artist-detained-by-chinese-authorities-ahead-oftiananmen-anniversary-20140602-zrv8o.html The Sydney Morning Herald reports Guo Jian’s arrest
http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2013/march/08/the-new-landscapes-ofyao-lu/
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/
www.teachingchineseart.com
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Intertextuality
Postmodern Frame
Propaganda
vs Art
Autobiography,
political activism
Cultural Frame
Art as social
protest
Practice
Artist/Artwork
Chinese
history
Artist/World
The influence
of events
Essential Vocabulary for this Case Study
People’s Republic of China
Cultural Revolution
Conceptual Art
Postmodernism / Postmodernity
Tiananmen Square Incident
Propaganda
Political Pop (Chinese art movement of the 1990s)
Dissident
Activism
Globalisation
Satire/Satirical
Socialist Realism
Guo Jian, Trigger Happy 9, 2008, oil on canvas, 213 x 152 cm, image courtesy the artist
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Readings and Questions
Reading #1: ‘Guo Jian’ by Paul Flynn, Artist Profile Magazine
ARTIST PROFILE visits the Beijing studio of painter Guo Jian to discuss the paintings
inspired by his time in China’s military that reveal the contradictions behind the country’s propaganda machine.
Performance, music and visual arts have long been used by armies as a way of rousing troops to
their cause, but perhaps nowhere on such a grand and systematic scale as China. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been the central actor in the Chinese Communist Party’s myth making.
Since the founding of the Republic in 1949, traditional novels, ballets and operas have been
reconfigured into stories and images of the PLA’s modern military triumph. While the disastrous policies of The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a destructive social-political campaign aimed at
purging the party of Mao’s imagined enemies and enforcing Maoist orthodoxy, are now officially
repudiated, major works from that era such as the ‘Red Detachment of Women’, performed for US President Richard Nixon during his 1972 visit, are still part of the repertoire of the National
Ballet of China.
Even today an estimated 10,000 ‘entertainment soldiers’ – dancers, singers, musicians and
acrobats – are charged with the business of raising morale both for the military and the public
at large. Peng Liyuan, wife of current Chinese leader Xi Jinping, was until very recently herself a
performer to troops, more famous among the general public than her husband before his current
rise to power. Popular media also plays its part: turn on state television and there is a devoted
channel for gala performances, blockbuster movies and countless hours of popular TV dramas
on military themes. The message through all is clear: the PLA is the bedrock of China’s modern identity and the key to its future security.
Artist Guo Jian has known the PLA from both behind and in the front of front lines – from enlisting
in the late 1970s to escape the drudgery of small town life as an army propaganda painter, to a
decade later finding himself among the students carting bodies off Tiananmen Square as those
same forces opened fire on him and his classmates during the tragedy of June 4, 1989. His
extraordinary experience has been the inspiration for a life’s body of work that reworks elements
of the state’s propaganda to document the milestones of his generation: from a rag-tag bunch
of poor rural kids manipulated by a closed cultural and political system, through momentous,
heartbreaking change as China struggled to absorb the influence and criticism of the outside
world.
Guo Jian was born in 1963 in China’s southwest backwater province of Guizhou. At 17 (claiming
to be older), he joined a group of 400 teenagers from his community on a train to a military
training camp as part of the recruitment drive for the Sino-Vietnamese war. The innocence and
idealism of their enlistment is captured in his series ‘1979’, where we see romantic black-andwhite images of Guo and his friends as stereotypes of the patriot soldier – dressed in new
uniforms and staring off into the distance much as young soldiers still do in the countless military
propaganda posters that litter Chinese cities today.
“At first, they put us on a nice train – and everyone came to the station thinking we were heroes,” he recalls. “I was really happy, but my classmate was crying. He told me to stop f-ing smiling
because we’re all going to die.” Once in the neighbouring province of Yunnan, he and his friends
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were ordered off their comfortable ride and into a freight train, where they were “packed in like pigs”. As he recalls, this was his first lesson in the grim reality of army life. The training camp where they were eventually offloaded was a village warehouse 300 km from
the border with Vietnam – with one gun and no bullets: “In China, the first thing they train you in is how to march and how to listen to orders. Every day we were told the Vietnamese were
coming to kill us,” he notes bluntly. “We were given the army newspaper and made to read it
every day. After a few months we got really angry about the Vietnamese. We were brainwashed
... we had to volunteer ourselves to go to the war and that is how they made us want to go.” Guo Jian had been brought into the army as a propaganda painter, recognised in his home town
for artistic skills he had developed through copying – first from images in the bottom of
decorated wash basins or, when available, sketch books borrowed for a hasty ten minutes from
those lucky enough to own them. But while his talent was to be put to use rousing the troops,
he recalls the army had a difficult enough time keeping them from deserting… One of the few
respites from the cycle of propaganda and exercise was the occasional visit of singers and
dancers brought in to perform for troops before they headed to war – a heightened experience
for these groups of agitated, isolated young men. In the series of satirical paintings ‘The Day
before I went Away’ (2008), Guo Jian offers impressions of how young woman were positioned
by the army in these covertly erotic performances to manipulate the soldiers to the point of
sexual hysteria and blood lust.
Following his military service, he returned to his home town, again as a propaganda painter for
a local transport company and later for a government department promoting the one-child
policy. A chance encounter with a teacher gave him the opportunity to apply for art school in
Beijing, and after being selected as one of just three from 6000 in his province, he arrived in 1985
at Beijing’s National University of Minorities just as the city’s watershed ‘New Wave’ movement
was galvanising a new generation of radical artists.
“1985 to 1989 were China’s best years,” he recalls. “We had only learned the propaganda style
but 1985 was the first year I saw Robert] Rauschenberg’s show at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. People were queuing, laughing, arguing about the art. It was totally shocking. I
remember one old guy standing in front of a painting wanting to smash it with his walking stick.
Our minds were opened up.” In 1989 pressure for political reform also drove thousands of students, Guo Jian included, to join
the protests and hunger strikes on Tiananmen Square, sparked by the death of liberal reformer
and deposed Premier Zhao Yiyang. Guo Jian was there to its bloody end, where he faced down
young soldiers trucked in from the countryside, much as he had been ten years prior, as they
began shooting. Memories of that day and carrying bullet riddled bodies from the square still
haunt him…. Blacklisted for his role in the protests, Guo Jian was unable to find work for three
years as he waited for approval to emigrate to Australia, which he did in the early 1990s. Today,
he has returned to China and set up a studio in the thriving artist community of Songzhuang on
the eastern outskirts of Beijing. While his exhibition options in the country are curtailed because
of his past political actions, Guo Jian continues to exhibit outside of China with new paintings,
photographic work and collage that examine the environmental degradation and cultural
malaise that are the underbelly of his country’s economic success, and the propaganda
experience of soldiers in China and abroad.
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Focus Questions
1. Briefly summarise the key influences that led to Guo Jian’s artistic practice.
2. What can you infer about his material AND conceptual practice?
3. Why do you think the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition in Beijing in 1985 was so influential
to young Chinese artists?
4. Look at Guo Jian’s paintings ‘Trigger Happy 9’, ‘The Day Before I Went Away’ and ‘Bubbles
of Yum/Girls of Romance’. How can you interpret the imagery in these works, in the light
of Guo Jian’s life experiences?
5. Select ONE of these works and analyse it using the Structural Frame, applying richly
descriptive language designed to interest and intrigue your readers.
Guo Jian, The Day Before I Went Away, 2003, oil on canvas,152 x 213cm, image courtesy the artist
Guo Jian, Bubbles of Yum/Girls of Romance, 2002, oil on canvas, 117 x 132cm,
Collection of Robert Wilks, Melbourne Australia, image courtesy the artist
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Reading #2: A Challenge to China's Self-Looting
By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW, New York Times, JUNE 22, 2011
BEIJING — In Guo Jian’s startling vision, Tiananmen Square, that tightly controlled space in the heart
of the capital, is a smashed field, gouged by earth diggers, blasted by attack helicopters.
“In China you can knock down everything, just not Tiananmen Square,” said Mr. Guo, a Chineseborn artist and Australian citizen. In his taboo-shattering diorama, this most powerful symbol of
Communist Party rule — with its Mao Zedong mausoleum and portrait, its revolutionary
monuments and Great Hall of the People — is under assault from all sides.
As an artist, Mr. Guo both actively and unconsciously reflects his surroundings, often via symbols.
He said he had no wish to see China plunged into chaos. Yet he is drawn to probe boundaries, and
the square’s apparent untouchability, he said, symbolizes the state’s desire for untouchable power.
But, he said, “If you have that attitude, then in the end, people will knock down your power.” Because a government intent on maintaining absolute power will eventually generate too much
antipathy to endure. “And that’s the cycle of Chinese history,” he said. The diorama, which has not been publicly exhibited, is in his Beijing studio.
Even as the Chinese authorities carry out a highly publicized crackdown on dissent, behind closed
doors, a debate about political reform is growing. China today is awash with cash, and many people
value the government for the economic growth and stability it has brought. But it is also faced with
seemingly entrenched corruption, a sense of lack of access to justice, and a large wealth gap.
The diorama plays specifically on the sensitive issue of government land seizures and property
demolitions. Tens of millions of farmers and urban residents have lost their homes in the last three
decades, forced out by local officials in league with developers. While there are no reliable, publicly
available figures for the scale of the problem, land disputes are a leading cause of social unrest.
If Tiananmen Square is untouchable, elsewhere in China, the government has been hungrily seizing
land and demolishing buildings in its quest for growth.
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The noted economist Wu Jinglian, citing rural affairs experts, estimates that farmers whose land
has been seized have lost between 20 trillion and 35 trillion renminbi, or between $3.1 trillion and
$5.4 trillion, in land value since the beginning of economic reforms in 1978. He posted his findings
in an article on the Web site of the Rural Development Research Institute of Hunan Province. The
pace is quickening, according to a report in January by the China Construction Management and
Property Law Research Center in Beijing. In 2009, local government income from land use sales was
$219 billion, an increase of 43.2 percent over 2008, the center reported, using official data. In 2010,
that soared to $417 billion, an increase of 70.4 percent over 2009, the report said.
In Mr. Guo’s diorama, a 4.6-by-2.2 meter, or 15-by-7 foot, work in progress, toy trucks and diggers
balance on piles of “granite” debris, actually Styrofoam. The roof of Mao’s mausoleum is caved in. The Forbidden City’s Gate of Heavenly Peace and the new National Museum of China show damage
from both the wrecker’s ball and gunfire. Trees lie felled. Smoke billows.
Earth-moving machines and trucks are a common sight in China. But why the attack helicopters?
“Doesn’t ‘chai’ look like warfare?” asked Mr. Guo, using the Chinese word for demolition. “Places that have been ‘chaied’ look like battlefields.”
Why the giant Ferris wheel, tilting at the edge of the square?
“Everything in China today is entertainment, even destruction,” he said.
“People gather and say, ‘Wow, that was knocked down really well.’ So why not have fun watching Tiananmen Square being chaied, too?”
Mr. Guo isn’t the only person who wonders where it’s all headed.
Focus Questions
1. Why does the writer describe Guo Jian’s diorama as “taboo-shattering”?
2. What contemporary social issue was Guo Jian’s work reflecting?
3. Using the photograph of the diorama and the article, describe Guo Jian’s work and explain how he aims to challenge some of the realities of today’s China.
4. Could Guo Jian’s work be described as an act of “social intervention”? Give reasons for your opinion.
Guo Jian, Diorama of Tiananmen, 2010 – 2011, mixed media, 460 x 220cm, courtesy of the artist
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Reading #3
Guo Jian, Untitled, 2007, oil on canvas, 213 x 152cm, image courtesy the artist
…Guo Jian’s art practice has been fueled by his position as a reflective, sharply satirical Chinese
expatriate who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and under a deeply communist regime.
Jian’s early experiences of art were inevitably entwined with communist authority, ideology and
militaristic power - his first acquaintance with art was time spent as a propaganda-poster painter
for the People’s Liberation Army then later, as an art student in Beijing, he took part in the protests which led to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
Jian takes the Socialist Realism he grew up with in China, subverts and transforms it, often
humorously, into Socio-Realism in an almost celebratory act of protest and liberation. His flat
surfaces and heightened colours owe much to the Chinese visual and political language of the
Communist era. Dancing girls in dressed in traditional ballet costumes or in uniforms with
weapons are either placed in the foreground with soldiers leering (usually in disquieting
repetition of Jian’s own face) or in the background as a lingerie-clad model straight out of a
Western fashion magazine poses in the foreground; a contrast of unrestricted sexuality and
enforced conformity. The Western woman is a temptation, a siren and a subversive outsider in
scenes such as Untitled #1 (2006) and Untitled #5 (2005). Underlying conflicting themes of sex
and violence, East and West are dominant forces in Jian’s works. Soldiers are captivated and awestruck by female performers, sometimes in quiet contemplation, sometimes in overly
excited wonderment, but a sense of false happiness, hypocrisy and hysteria often pervade the
scenes.
Jian’s most recent series (2009) has continued this concern of contrast and comparisons between the East and West. Taking iconic photographs from history of famous Hollywood
femme fatales visiting US troops in war zones, including Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson and
Mariah Carey, Jian repaints them in photoreal precision with great attention to detail. Jian erases
some figures and inserts himself as a People’s Liberation Army soldier amongst a group of US Marines, or in the case of No. a (2009) where Monroe is photographed singing to the 3rd U.S.
Infantry Division in Korea in 1954, Jian substitutes the American soldiers with the green and red
uniformed soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army. Jian’s manipulation as he inserts himself 12
wearing the red star cap into a grinning group posing with Monroe or bikini girls is highly
illusionary and playful. As one Chinese soldier reads The Little Red Book and an American soldier
reads Maxim besides each other in No. g (2009), Jian seems to challenge the ideologies behind
both cultures and countries. Jian is an artist who revels in juxtapositions and the search for
identity: ‘Put your feet into someone else’s shoes to think about the world and your own life
differently. For me, if the surroundings change, are combined, are old or new, it doesn’t matter.’
https://ocula.com/artists/guo-jian/
Focus Questions
1. Find examples of Cultural Revolution Propaganda Posters from the period 1966 - 1976
(http://chineseposters.net/index.php is a useful source of images and information.)
Select some specific examples and compare them with Guo Jian’s paintings. Look for
visual or stylistic influences. Record your findings.
2. Find works by a Chinese ‘Political Pop’ painter, Wang Guangyi, from his ‘Great Criticisms’ series and look for visual or stylistic connections. How can you explain your
findings?
3. With reference to specific works by Guo Jian, explain how he “takes the Socialist
Realism he grew up with in China, subverts and transforms it, often humorously, into
Socio-Realism in an almost celebratory act of protest and liberation.”
4. What is the purpose behind Guo Jian’s juxtaposition and substitution of Western stars and celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, into images of People’s Liberation Army
soldiers?
5. How does Guo Jian use images of women (often in a stylized sexualized manner) as
metaphors? The first biographical reading stated: “He delves into the sexualisation of
propaganda, heroism, patriotism and persuasion. What first appears as humour is actually a
lament at the use of sex to seduce men to war.” What do the female figures symbolize, and
what is your opinion of images of women used in this way?
Guo Jian, New Trigger Happy, 2012, oil on canvas, 213 x 152cm, image courtesy the artist
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Part 2
Voices of Resistance: Art and Social Intervention
Guo Jian, Untitled, pigmented inkjet prints, 2014, Image courtesy the artist and White Rabbit Gallery
Guo Jian came upon these rural children from the ethnic minority Miao people posing for a local
photographer, at a ‘Tiao Chang’ 跳場, where children dance and sing – a special festival for Miao
children as a part of Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) – and was so struck by the fact that they
were all posed with guns that he began to record the events and people with his own camera.
1. Investigate the stories behind Goya’s painting ‘3rd May’, 1808, and Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, 1937. How might these paintings be considered as acts of protest? (Class discussion)
2. In a small group or paired discussion, compare Guo Jian’s ‘Untitled’, photograph of rural
Chinese children with toy guns, with any TWO of these contemporary artworks:
Artist and Artwork
Research resources
Jenny Holzer, Lustmord series, 1993/94
https://www.accaonline.org.au/sites/default/file
s/JENNYHOLZEREDKIT.pdf
http://hyperallergic.com/149831/memory-andregret-jenny-holzers-dust-paintings/
https://teachartwiki.wikispaces.com/Shirin+Nesh
at,+Women+of+Allah+Series
http://www.mca.com.au/collection/work/20062
5/
http://www.chinesephotography.net/zhangdali.php
http://www.kleinsungallery.com/exhibitions/zha
ng-dali-square and
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/artists/zha
ng-dali-%E5%BC%A0%E5%A4%A7%E5%8A%9B-2/
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/glob
al-culture/global-art-architecture/a/ai-weiweiremembering-and-the-politics-of-dissent
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/artists/aiweiwei-2/
Jenny Holzer, Dust Paintings, 2014
Shirin Neshat, Women of Allah series,
1993/97
Daniel Boyd, We Call Them Pirates Out
Here, 2006
Zhang Dali, Demolition & Dialogue, 1998
Zhang Dali, Square, 2014
Ai Weiwei, Remembering, 2009
Ai Weiwei, Oil Spill, 2006
14
Part 3
Landscapes of Lost Dreams: A Lament for the Natural World
Guo Jian, Picturesque Scenery No.26, 2011 - 2012, inkjet pigment print, 500 x 32cm,
10 panels each 96 x160cm, image courtesy the artist and White Rabbit Gallery
When Guo Jian returned after a long absence to his hometown, a place of famously scenic beauty, he was
horrified to see a dramatic change: the streets were littered with garbage and the waterways were
choked with plastic packaging and debris. The artist says, “After 5,000 years of culture, now all you can
see is rubbish. We are being buried by rubbish.” On the discarded packaging, and in the advertising promoting the products these bags and boxes had once contained, he observed the faces of celebrities.
The same faces populate Chinese television screens; which Guo Jian describes as “cultural rubbish”. In a juxtaposition of traditional landscape paintings depicting picturesque scenery with the sordid reality of
today’s throw-away world, Guo Jian has experimented with photographic techniques to construct his
landscape from hidden faces, in a grid of tiny sections. It’s a secret lurking within the apparently beautiful
scenery of Guizhou, representing the artist’s distress at the transformation of rural China: rapid urbanisation and globalisation has resulted in environmental destruction, and the loss of traditional
culture and community values.
Compare Guo Jian’s ‘Picturesque Scenery no. 26’, his satire of the destruction of the natural
environment in China, with any TWO of the following contemporary and/or historical Chinese
artworks:
Artists and Artworks
Fa Ruozhen (Qing Dynasty),
Cloudy Mountains 1684, ink
and colour on silk
Yang Yongliang, Cigarette
Ash Landscape, 2013
installation, or Infinite
Landscape, 2011, video
Useful Research Resources
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2010.54
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/artists/yangyongliang-%E6%A5%8A%E6%B3%B3%E6%A2%81/
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/yang-yongliangbrings-chinese-landscape-painting-into-the-21st-century
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/02/yang-yongliangsilent-city/
http://www.designboom.com/art/yang-yongliang-cigaretteash-landscape/
http://www.yangyongliang.com/
15
Yao Lu, New Landscapes
Series or Dwelling in Mount
Fuchun, 2008, chromogenic
print
http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2013/
march/08/the-new-landscapes-of-yao-lu/
Wang Zhiyuan, Thrown to
the Wind, 2010, installation
of discarded plastic bottles
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/artists/wang-zhiyuan/
Wang Jiuliang, Beijing
Besieged by Waste, 2009,
photographic still images
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/artists/wang-jiuliang%E7%8E%8B%E4%B9%85%E8%89%AF/
http://www.brucesilverstein.com/artists/yao-lu
http://inhabitat.com/wang-zhiyuans-giant-sculpture-whirlslike-a-tornado-of-trash/
http://icarusfilms.com/dgenerate/bsieg.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW2nGf1hQyU\
http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/miff2012/the-affluent-andthe-effluent-wang-jiuliangs-beijing-besieged-by-waste/
Other works students and teachers could consider in this investigation include:
o Zhang Dali, ‘Offspring’ installation or his ‘AK47 series’ of street art interventions
o Chen Jiagang, ‘Smog City’ series of photographs using a large format camera
o Xu Bing, ‘Phoenix’, installation created with debris from a Beijing building site
o Zhang Xiaotao ‘Liang’, digital animation
o Chen Hangfeng, ‘Logomania’ series and ‘Invasive Species: Vegetables’ installation
o Chen Qiulin, ‘Xinsheng Town 275-277’, a reconstructed traditional house demolished in the
construction of the Three Gorges Dam, or ‘The Garden’, video exploring demolition and
urbanisation
Comparative Art Criticism – an Essay
Apply your understanding of Guo Jian’s practice to an extended argument, comparing his body
of work with the practice of another selected contemporary artist.
Plan and write an extended response to this question:
How do artists represent and critique significant events and issues of their
time and place? Refer to TWO or MORE artists in your response.
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Marking Guidelines
Descriptor
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
A comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the
practice of the selected artists is evident and sustained
throughout
A sophisticated analysis and interpretation of the visual
codes, materials and techniques used by the selected
artists, demonstrating extensive knowledge and thorough
understanding of the works within their contemporary
context, informed by contemporary theories of art
A sophisticated understanding of the cultural context of
each artist is evident
A sound knowledge and understanding of the practice of
the selected artists is evident and well-sustained
A good analysis and interpretation of the visual codes,
materials and techniques used by the selected artists,
demonstrating sound knowledge and understanding of the
works within their contemporary context
A sound understanding of the cultural context of each
artist is evident
Some knowledge and understanding of the practice of the
selected artists is evident
A satisfactory analysis and interpretation of some visual
codes, materials and techniques used by the selected
artists, demonstrating some knowledge and
understanding of the works in a more descriptive manner
A more limited understanding of the cultural context of
each artist is evident
A limited knowledge and understanding of the practice of
the selected artists may be expressed in less coherent
ways
o A simple analysis and interpretation of some visual codes,
materials and techniques used by the selected artists,
demonstrating a developing knowledge and
understanding of the works, is applied in a descriptive or
more limited manner
o A very simple understanding of the cultural context of
each artist is evident
Mark
Range
A
9 - 10
B
7-8
C
5-6
o
A foundational understanding of artmaking practice
Limited, poorly researched or prepared, revealing an
elementary understanding of the visual codes, materials
and techniques used the selected artists
o Little or no evident understanding of the cultural contexts
of the artists
o
o
D
3-4
E
1-2
17