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Circles were everywhere—red, blue, black, yellow, green—across the floor, on the walls, near the ceiling. Hung from the roof were five bicycle wheels painted the same colors through which a yellow dragon was flying. Below the dragon on the floor was a huge piece of white canvas splashed with similar circles. Another long piece of canvas covered with colorful circles and tai chi symbols was pinned on the walls surrounding the room. Red, blue, black, yellow, green—colors of the Olympic Games—were ubiquitous in Winand Staring’s installation at NY Arts Beijing Space in China. |
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Catherine Yu-Shan Hsieh on Winand Staring
Circles were everywhere—red, blue, black, yellow, green—across the floor, on the walls, near the ceiling. Hung from the roof were five bicycle wheels painted the same colors through which a yellow dragon was flying. Below the dragon on the floor was a huge piece of white canvas splashed with similar circles. Another long piece of canvas covered with colorful circles and tai chi symbols was pinned on the walls surrounding the room. Red, blue, black, yellow, green—colors of the Olympic Games—were ubiquitous in Winand Staring’s installation at NY Arts Beijing Space in China.
Staring, of Dutch descent, was born in Venezuela and lived in the region for 20 years. He was a development economist in Asia and South America for the Dutch foreign ministry before he discovered a new obsession, painting. In September 2007, he went to Beijing, where he bore witness to the hustle and bustle of the Chinese city. “Those are exciting times in Beijing: working 24/7 in getting ready for the Games, and the art world exploding in psychedelic mushroom spaces,” Staring said in an artist statement for his exhibition in Beijing.
What does China look like in the eyes of an artist and former diplomat? As Staring was observing China’s transformation, he translated the lively chaos through brush strokes and tire marks on the canvas, bringing forth a fight between art and life. The dragon soaring high above stands as a symbol of contemporary China—asserting its dominance in the world as it is moving at full throttle for the 2008 Olympics. In a corner of the room stood a white statue of an athlete throwing a bike wheel. On the platform where the statue was standing, a question was written, “Who’s the winner?” The athlete’s face was covered with a piece of cloth, with a flashlight positioned in the left hand, lights directing towards the torso. As China is striving to prepare itself for the one event the whole world is looking forward to, Staring couldn’t help but wonder in his artist statement, “the Olympic athlete throwing the symbolic bike wheel to higher summits, [is] his/her face still veiled in obscurity?”
The statute’s face may be concealed, but the ebullience of Staring’s installation was plain to see—the dynamics between colors and patterns, the synergy of an everyday transportation vehicle like bicycles alongside symbols of the quadrennial Olympics, the energy conveyed by the coarseness of the paint and the location of the tire marks.
Two slogans, “One world one dream!” (in English) and “The Chinese road to Olympic fame” (in Chinese), were scribbled above the canvas on the walls. His mission, Staring said in the artist statement, is “to document this unique Chinese period with its economic development from Mao’s footsteps through agricultural reforms and the Cultural Revolution exploding into around-the-clock building of new houses, factories, infrastructure, and simultaneously art.” Yes, China is making great strides, leaving its past behind. By recording these trails in his art, Staring celebrates wholeheartedly the rebirth of China and a new era.
