education program - White Rabbit Gallery

EDUCATION PROGRAM
A practical classroom aid for
teachers and students with
profiles of six key artists in the
White Rabbit Gallery’s
Smash Palace Exhibition.
Artists in Focus
1. Cheng Dapeng
2. He An
3. Jin Shi
4. Miao Xiaochun
5. Shyu Ruey-Shiann
6. Zhou Jie
white
rabbit
Education Program
Fracturing China
About White Rabbit
China is changing at breakneck
The White Rabbit Gallery was
speed, and for its citizens the results
founded in 2009 to share the Chinese
are both energising and unsettling.
contemporary art collection of Mrs
Under Mao, the Communist Party
Judith Neilson with the public.
set out to “smash the Four Olds”:
All the works in the White Rabbit
customs, culture, habits and ideas.
Collection were created after 2000.
Now the “new China” they built is
itself under assault. Having tasted
freedom, many people want more
than the system is prepared to allow.
The immovable edifice of Party rule
is starting to show cracks.
SMASH PALACE, until 4
August 2013, showcases the reactions
of China’s best artists to the shocks of
the new century. Some question the
solidity of the status quo; others lift
the shining masks and find monsters
beneath. Some artists find reality so
absurd that mockery seems the only
proper response; others seek anchors
in the same Olds the hard-liners were
so determined to erase.
Cheng Dapeng and Zhou Jie create
Together they present a cross-section
of China’s most exciting and technically superb contemporary art and a
portrait of China as it grapples with
the changes of this new century.
Education and activities in the
Gallery extend beyond the artworks
and artists to the broader canvas of
Chinese history, language, culture
and custom. As the 19th-century British art critic John Ruskin observed,
“Great nations write three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the
book of their words and the book of
their art. Not one of these books can
be understood unless we read the two
others, but of these the only trustworthy one is the last.”
Through its education program,
surreal cities using, respectively,
White Rabbit hopes to encourage
3D printing and the ceramics to
students to “read” not only China’s art
which China gave its name. He An
but its history and literature as well.
uses neon building signs to write
a pair of symbolic love letters. Jin
Shi recreates in downsized detail
the grimy, cluttered “mini home”
of a poor urban migrant, and Miao
Xiaochun views globalisation with a
traditionalist’s eye.
(Cover)
He An, What Makes Me Understand
What I Know (detail), 2009,
illuminated signs and neon lights,
dimensions variable
White Rabbit Gallery: Meet the Artists: Cheng DAPENG
For more information, visit whiterabbitcollection.org
ChenG Dapeng
Cheng Dapeng
(born Beijing, 1968)
is a successful
architect as well
as an artist. “To
earn a living as
an architect,” he
says, “I have had
to compromise and
do what developers
say. I have made
money from this
process of creating
monster buildings.
Wonderful City is
my reaction to this
as an artist.”
Wonderful City
2011–2012
3D prints in resin on
lightbox
960 x 200 x 80 cm
“The people of the cities are like monsters
because they don’t lead a normal life.”
Cheng Dapeng’s artworks are marked by a sense
ugliness of China’s rapidly growing cities, Cheng
of the new and the “now”. Wonderful City (2011-
Dapeng does not fear for the future. “Artists must
2012) uses the cutting-edge technology of 3D
be ready to change and adapt to different environ-
printing, in which micro-thin sheets of droplets or
ments and situations,” he believes. And China’s
granules are laid down according to a computer-
younger generation, with their exposure to new
generated design and finally fused into solid form.
technologies and ideas from around the world,
Working with a team of fellow architects, Cheng
“have completely different views from the last
Dapeng took two years to complete the instal-
generation.” In that fact lies a glimmer of hope.
lation: a year of research, six months of experi-
Perhaps the cities they and their children build 50
ments and a year of design and production. They
years from now will be genuinely wonderful.
used Pixologic’s ZBrush 4R5 to design the models, and three 3D printers to transform their 200+
Things to think about
digital drawings into objects.
Cheng Dapeng worries that “China is
developing in a distorted way.” Superficially, his
model buildings resemble the ones architects
and property developers show to their clients.
But the “development” these buildings promise
is monstrously distorted: they resemble not
homes and workplaces but alien ghost-creatures
in a cruel fairytale world. The forms are based on
original paintings by Cheng Dapeng. “In China we
have a unique and difficult situation,” he explains.
“Private owners aim to make money, while the
government aims to increase the influence of
the city. These things damage the environment
and affect judgment. There are many alien
structures around China which are against the
ethics of our architecture and culture. Landmark
buildings have armed police guarding them. This
is by no means normal. My artwork reflects this
abnormality.”
1. Whose Wonderful City do you think this
Despite his concerns about the destruction
of the natural environment and the hotch-potch
installation represents: the artist’s, the architect’s or the viewer’s? Give reasons for your
answer.
2. The standard miniaturised white models
that architects and property vendors use is
supposed to give an impression of truth and
reality. How are truth and reality represented
in Cheng Dapeng’s Wonderful City?
3. Suggest a purely objective or a purely subjective reading of this artwork.
4. “To remain competitive, artists must adapt
to a new generation of technology users and
tools.” Discuss this comment with reference to
Wonderful City.
5. If you could touch this artwork, what would
you be seeking?
White Rabbit Gallery: Meet the Artists: HE AN
For more information, visit whiterabbitcollection.org
HE AN
“I was born in a city and in the future I might die in the city. All my thought and
emotional expression come from the everyday language of the city.”
He An’s artworks tend to fuse commercial expressions with per-
I have friends who are policemen, and friends who are gangsters.”
sonal ones. Like many emerging artists of his generation, he is
He An sees his neon-light installations as a way to “make a
particularly concerned by the social and psychological disloca-
connection between my work and the reality of urban living”. The
tions that result from relentless urban growth. But he also loves
characters in What Makes Me Understand What I Know spell out
the city and says he could never be happy outside it. “I want to
the names of the artist’s father and of his Japanese idol. The vary-
produce artworks that promote debate, dialogue and conversation
ing colours, sizes and styles of the characters, and the fact that
about modern life,” he has said. While his light installations have
some are broken and unlit, simultaneously evoke energy and am-
an abstract, even cryptic character, “My concern is with reality.”
biguity and, for Chinese-reading viewers, sense and nonsense. It
A central reality of He An’s recent life is the death of his father.
is a discourse of opposites: male vs female, young vs old, living vs
He Tao Yuan passed away on 30 June 2006. “We had a very close
dead, sacred vs profane, whole vs broken. For He An, it sums up
relationship,” the artist has said, “and after his death I missed him
the endless discourse of life in the city.
a lot. Although we now live in different worlds, I wanted to create
an artwork that would strengthen our bond in some way, and so
Things to think about
I decided to write his name in lights.” This gesture of filial piety
1. He An believes “it is important for an artist to create works
is somewhat undermined by the second name He An decided to
that promote debate, dialogue and conversation about modern
write in lights, that of the Japanese porn star Yoshioka Miho (Ji
life.” What do you think?
Gang Mei Hui in Chinese). The artist explains the bizarre juxtaposition as follows: “My father used to live near me. I could see him
during spring festival every year. The Japanese actress seemed far
2. In what ways has He An’s installation expanded your understanding of modern life in China?
3. “In cities around the world, neon lights have become a major
away from me and I could only see her on Internet. Now my father
part of visual public space. Crossing over into the museum and
has passed away and I don’t know if I’ll get to see him after I die.
gallery system, however, presents a unique set of challenges.”
At least Ji Gang Mei Hui and I live in the same world, and perhaps
List and discuss some of these challenges.
I will get to see her in Japan one day…”
Having resolved to create a neon memorial to this unlikely
pair, He An had trouble obtaining certain characters. “I didn’t care
how I got those signs,” he has said, “but they had to come from the
city. In fact, I hired people to steal them. In China, this is very easy.
He An (born Wuhan, Hubei, 1971) studied at the
Hubei Academy of Arts. He began in photography
and also paints in oils, but he is best known for
his neon-light installations, which hover between
bas-relief sculptures and conceptual art.
4. “ Art has become small, superficial and self-indulgent in its
emotional range: sentimental rather than truly intellectual or
moving.” Discuss with reference to this work.
5. How important is background knowledge to the understanding
and appreciation of an artwork?
What Makes Me Understand
What I Know
2009
illuminated neon signs
dimensions variable
White Rabbit Gallery: Meet the Artists: JIN SHI
For more information, visit whiterabbitcollection.org
JIN SHI
“Objects can be far more persuasive than people. People can
pretend, but objects can’t.”
Jin Shi (born Xintai, Henan, 1976) is the son of an
artist and studied sculpture at the Central Academy
of Fine Arts in Beijing. He now lives and works
in Hangzhou. He says he is inspired by “current
political and economic conditions” and that most of
his works are “based on life at the bottom”.
Mini Home
2005
mixed media
140 x 120 x 195 cm
Mini Home (2005) captures the spirit of the uncounted millions of
Things to think about
rural dwellers who have moved to the cities in search of work and a
1. In what ways has Jin Shi’s installation expanded your under-
better life. “These guys come,” the artist has said, “but city people
standing of the plight of migrant workers in China?
never accept them and they are treated as outcasts. Yet, after see-
2. Imagine that you are the curator of the Smash Palace Exhi-
ing the dazzling temptations of the big city, no one wants to return
bition at the White Rabbit Gallery. The emotive nature of Jin
to the barren soil of the country.” For these urban migrants, who
Shi’s installation presents a particular set of challenges. What
need official permits to work in the city and often remain illegally
might some of these challenges be? How would you solve them?
rather than go home, “the universal desire for ‘a good job and a
3. “Art has a special relationship with society because it prompts
good home’ becomes a pitiful compromise.”
people to think about reality and universal issues.” Discuss.
Having come to the city with big dreams, these people are
4. Examine the sensory-emotional appeal of the work in terms
forced to downsize in every sense. Their lives become smaller,
of its composition, perspective, and the miniaturization of its
shabbier versions of the ones they had hoped to lead. Mini Home
components.
(2005) epitomises this shrinkage. Its tiny, roofless cubicle is filled
5. “ The world of capitalism is inhuman enough and the conditions
with over 200 scaled-down items, ranging from pots and pans
in which we live and work are unbearable. But art whether it is
to cheap versions or imitations of luxury goods. Jin Shi’s grand-
good or bad strikes a chord that vibrates in people’s hearts and
mother made the blankets and clothes, while the artist made or
souls. That art is important to our lives is beyond question.”
purchased replicas of utensils and designer-brand items. “ ‘Mini’ is
Suggest a purely Marxist reading of Jin Shi’s Mini Home.
not only reflected in the material sense but also deeply engraved on
the humble hearts of these people,” he has said. “It is even written
on their dry, rough faces and in their soft murmurs. Dwellings, as a
person’s most private space, are the best places to reveal both material life and spiritual needs. This is why I created Mini Home.”
White Rabbit Gallery: Meet the Artists: miao xiaochun
For more information, visit whiterabbitcollection.org
miao xiaochun
“What I am good at is revealing through images things that
cannot be articulated well through language.”
A world-famous photographer and multimedia artist,
Miao Xiaochun (born Wuxi, Jiangsu, 1964) is also a
professor of digital media at the Central Academy of
Fine Arts in Beijing. He studied art in Germany and
continues to spend much of his time in Europe.
Await, 2006
transparency on lightbox
136 x 323 x 8 cm
Miao Xiaochun’s preferred medium is digital photography, but
that appeared on Chinese streets were portraits of Chairman Mao
his artworks reflect many of the principles of traditional Chinese
Zedong. The phone is an emblem of the power of Western ideas
painting. Like horizontal ink scrolls, his meticulously Photo-
and commerce, and an ironic comment on the isolation of the in-
shopped images are made up of separate panels that can be viewed
dividuals waiting below. Miao Xiaochun has said he is struck by
individually or as a seamless whole. Miao Xiaochun too depicts
“the loneliness and alienation experienced by people ... in huge,
landscapes, but instead of misty mountains, he focuses on bus-
overcrowded cities ... separated by the very technology that is sup-
tling city streets. And whereas the old painters often embellished
posed to bring us together.”
their scrolls with poetic verses, he drives his points home using
advertising images and brand names.
Many traditional scrolls included only one or two figures, solitary
Things to think about
1. “As new possibilities emerge, old certainties are breaking
travellers lost in the vastness of nature. The 3-metre-long Await
down.” In what ways do Miao Xiaochun’s artworks demon-
(2006) portrays a crowd waiting—in boredom or impatience—
strate alienation and estrangement in modern urban contexts?
at an urban bus exchange. Miao Xiaochun photographed the
2. “Posters, signs and advertisements have become the most
scene in sections and digitally manipulated the images so that
significant part of our environment, and are therefore valid
each one remained in focus. This flattens perspective, another
subjects for an artwork in themselves.” What do you think?
characteristic of traditional landscape paintings. It also renders
each person equally “central”—and alone.
This seemingly random scene is rich with subtle messages.
Above the crowd hovers—like an apparition or a guiding spirit—a
giant mobile phone, part of an advertisement for the U.S. telecommunications giant Motorola. Once, the only images of this size
3. Discuss the importance of composition, perspective and
dimension to both the sensory-emotional impact and the
aesthetic appeal of Maio Xiaochun’s artworks.
4. D
o you think Await makes a political statement? Give reasons
for your answer.
White Rabbit Gallery: Meet the Artists: SHYU RUEY-SHIANN
For more information, visit whiterabbitcollection.org
Shyu Ruey-Shiann
“Through various rhythms
based on precise mechanical
theories, I try to tell stories
from my cultural background
with a poetic approach.”
Art in the age of mechanical reproduction reflects experiences of rapid interconnection and
changing viewpoints. Starting in the late 19th
century, machines transformed every area of life
and tipped the balance of population to the cities. All around the world, machine-formed urban
environments now challenge traditional customs,
cultures, habits and ideas. Ironically, Shyu Ruey-
The world’s fascination with sculptures made
Shiann’s metal “birds” evoke nostalgia for a past
from everyday materials with moving parts began
when Man experienced life as seasonal and cycli-
in 1913 when Marcel Duchamp “had the happy
cal, as opposed to the linearity of the industrial
idea” to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool. In
age. He has said, “Despite the massive complexity
1997, inspired by Duchamp and driven by a search
of my works … visually the work must leave an im-
for metaphors to reflect a radically changing so-
pression of simplicity.”
ciety, Shyu Ruey-Shiann began a series of kinetic
sculptures with the theme of “mechanical power”.
Things to think about
Traveller’s Wings (2011) is a work from that series,
1. In what ways does Traveller’s Wings (2011)
which because of financial restraints took him
show an intersection of art, technology, science
over ten years to complete.
and culture?
Traveller’s Wings (2011) comprises nine pairs
2. “Machinery art ought to find its most vivid
of thin copper plates, each imprinted with one
expression in irony, disgust and protest. Shyu
of the French National Railway tickets the artist
Ruey-Shiann’s Traveller’s Wings (2011) does
collected on trips around France when he was a
not go far enough.” What do you think?
student there. Installed on motorised bases, these
3. How effective is Shyu Ruey-Shiann’s use of a
sculptures resemble a flock of migratory birds,
bird motif as a sign of progress and transfor-
flapping their wings but going nowhere. The artist
comments: “A bird flies from one place to another.
A moving train traverses time with speed, and a
traveller moves from place to place in a period of
mation?
4. Discuss Traveller’s Wings (2011) in terms of
line, light, geometry and mechanical process.
5. “ The sound of movement is a vital aspect of
time.” The artist says the sound of the wings is key:
Shyu Ruey-Shiann’s signature works.” Explain
“every time I listen to it,” he says, “I remember be-
why, with reference to Traveller’s Wings.
ing on the train.”
Shyu Ruey-Shiann
(born Taipei,
Taiwan, 1966) is a
renowned kinetic
sculptor who
travels between
Taiwan and New
York City. He
studied art in
France as well as
Taiwan. His works
can be seen in
public collections
around the globe.
Traveller’s Wings
2011
copper plates, motors,
sensors
dimensions variable
White Rabbit Gallery: Meet the Artists: ZHOU JIE
For more information, visit whiterabbitcollection.org
Zhou Jie
“Art should reveal the changes in the world, so that more
people can think and reflect on these things.”
CBD (2010) is a three-dimensional model of Beijing’s commercial
Things to think about
centre in which the buildings are recreated in white porcelain and
1. A s long as the concept is
set on a four-square-metre bed of white rice. The artist says she
original, there is no need for
chose porcelain and rice because they are emblematic of China. Al-
an artist to physically handle
though her miniature buildings and roads are laid out as they ap-
every detail of bringing the
pear in the real world, the buildings are far from realistic. Instead,
work to completion.” Where
they are covered with, and almost transformed into, fantastical
do you stand on this issue?
growths that resemble pathological organisms.
The practical challenges of making the installation were immense. Working entirely alone, Zhou Jie took “two months to plan,
2. What makes Zhou Jie’s
installation uniquely
Chinese?
two months to think about and six months to make” the buildings.
3. “Artists have an inherent
To prevent the hollow structures from warping or collapsing in the
responsibility to address
kiln, she adjusted the thickness of the clay at points of potential
environmental issues in
weakness. All the pieces were once-fired at 1310 C; given three to
their works.” What do you
four layers of glaze, and left in the kiln for 24 hours. As Zhou Jie
think?
explains, “The advantage of once-firing is that making and glazing
become a single process, leading to a more integrated work.”
Zhou Jie’s translation of concrete-and-steel structures into
4. In what ways has each
technical element of Zhou
Jie’s installation contrib-
evilly organic-looking growths reflects her view of the urban de-
uted to the mood, meaning
velopment that is transforming Chinese cities. Like rice, she ob-
and aesthetic effect of her
serves, “buildings come up from the ground—but buildings are
artwork?
not natural. The authorities are building more and more [towns
5. D
escribe the artwork’s rele-
and cities]. This makes people feel small, as if the way we live is
vance to the art community
pointless.” Her buildings convey both the insidious quality of rapid
urbanisation and the vulnerability of all man-made things.
“I made a miniature CBD to show people what is happening to
the environment,” Zhou Jie says. But “the city is a very contradictory development ... My porcelain buildings may look hard, but in
fact they are very fragile. When I showed this work in Beijing, the
people understood. Some people thought my installation looked
dead, like bleached coral. I’ve always thought that art should reveal the changes in the world around us, so that more people will
think and reflect.”
and to people as a whole.
6. Explain where you feel the
artwork succeeds and where
you think it falls short.
Zhou Jie (born
Changde, Hunan,
1986) attended the
Central Academy
of Fine Arts in
Beijing, where CBD
won a prize at the
graduation exhibition
in 2010. She grew up
in a rural area, but
moved to the city at
age 12. This change
and her difficulties
adjusting to it have
had a powerful
influence on her art.
CBD
2010
porcelain and rice
400 x 400 x 80 cm