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This exhibition may give viewers the first impression that the artist’s works are cute and celebrative. Yet, when one examines the 20 mixed media works on canvas and the robot-like, wooden sculptures closely, he or she might be surprised to see that all of these meticulous details and symbols are loaded with interrelated meanings. These symbols and images are contrived skillfully, reflecting the current mentality and psychology of the “New New China.” |
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The Brilliance of Capitalism – Catherine Kwai
This exhibition may give viewers the first impression that the artist’s works are cute and celebrative. Yet, when one examines the 20 mixed media works on canvas and the robot-like, wooden sculptures closely, he or she might be surprised to see that all of these meticulous details and symbols are loaded with interrelated meanings. These symbols and images are contrived skillfully, reflecting the current mentality and psychology of the “New New China.”
The exhibition is entitled “The Brilliance of Capitalism,” and features a series of Wang’s creations in mixed media on canvas as well as a number of his wood sculptures. Wang Mai uses different types of paints and techniques to convey the concept of capitalism in the paintings. For example, in his series, the “Future Buddha” installations, he uses the residual wood pieces left at the 798 military factory (predecessor of today’s 798 district in Beijing) to carve and rebuild the robot-like sculptures. Wang Mai uses canvases and hanging scrolls to portray his “aerospace kids,” who float and smile in outer space accompanied by the Goddess of the Moon, Bodhisattva and the buildings marked by the brand names of oil companies.
The repetitive signs of many global oil companies against the glimmering, outer-space backdrop seem to highlight the social prosperity resulting from the speedy evolution of both science and technology in capitalist society. Meanwhile, the Goddess of the Moon and all these children with fiery wheels under their feet are mythical figures in the legendary tales known by every Chinese person. Wang Mai has deliberately fused the marks of the old culture with those of the new in an attempt to trigger viewers to contemplate the contradictory but correlative relations between time-honored culture and the quickly developing areas of science and technology.
The universe that Wang Mai portrays appears shiny and his works teem with certain marks and signs that are often found in today’s society. The paintings’ visuals lead the viewer simultaneously to experience a sense of reality and a sense of hallucination. As Wang Mai noted, “None of us is willing to wake up from this pleasing illusion brought forth by the worries incurred through development.” In fact, the brilliance of capitalism has led human beings to embrace a hedonistic lifestyle. Yet, it has also exposed them to an even more severe crisis since we must now admit that the world’s resources are limited. Holding nostalgia for the industrial era, Wang Mai here seeks spiritual equilibrium and self-control. He is attempting to shed some light on this crazy era, and in his own terms.
Wang Mai was born in the Hei Long Jiang Province of China in 1972. He has lived in the art-enriched areas of Beijing such as Yuan Ming Yuan, Tong Xian and the 798 district. When he moved his studio to the 798 district, he found it a place that made him wish to create from out of the wood remnants from the previous manufacturing factory there. He collected the wood pieces and refurnished them into what we see increasingly nowadays, the robot. The setup of the “Future Buddha” installations convey the paradoxical reality behind the spiritual dilemma arising in today’s era between religion and superstition, science and mythology. These wooden molds made in the 50s and 60s were originally utilized to produce a myriad of components for application in machines that later constituted the original industrial civilization of China’s socialism. The giant, rolling wheels might also be related to the illustrations of life and death in ancient philosophy, while the rockers on those machines resemble the latest incarnations of the 1000-hand Buddha in ancient Chinese times. The carved images are thus the visual representation of a struggle in the mythical world between justice and evil, beauty and ugliness.
The Chinese government has proclaimed its hope of reinvigorating the entire country with the forces of science and technology. Many Chinese people have thus been driven onto this path—to the “Brilliance of Capitalism.” Wang Mai’s artworks present to the viewer the unreality of reality—a world now tangled with illusions, promises and contradictions.
