The King of the Chinese Underground
Lissette Olivares
It seems that Beijing is a breeding ground for wacky art. Cheto Castellano, a Chilean artist who has lived in China the past year, confirms my suspicion that anything can be done in China. Castellano has a history of working with unconventional materials. In Chile, he made an infamous work with Antonio Becerro: a collection of stuffed dogs tattooed by Castellano that caused an uproar in Chilean society. Castellano became even more of a superstar in the press when he began tattooing drug addicts and homeless people with human organs. Now, in China, Castellano has taken a sudden new step forward, or perhaps under: no longer satisfied by working on live flesh, he is engraving the structure beneath the skin–human bones.
Animal bone carvings are by no means new to the art world. However, an art piece that uses the remains of a human being is inherently more taboo. Castellano’s new collection of sculptures consists of human skulls that are carved with original designs. Each skull is engraved with different symbols, some are whimsical–his collection of circus elephants–others portray familiar slogans from our consumer society, such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Framing these landscapes are traditional Chinese images such as lotus flowers and clouds, and traditional tattoo images such as roses and flames.
You have to wonder what makes someone want to work with human skulls. According to Castellano, this idea was born from his stay China. "They’re inspired by Tibetan rituals which use human skulls. Due to my work with tattoos, I have often seen these skulls in magazines, they are in my visual memory, however only here in China did I ever get a chance to see them up close, with their extensive metalwork and carvings… I guess I never realized how much I liked them until I came here."
Working with the body is also common in the art world; in fact, Castellano himself is quite experienced in using the human body within his artwork. In his studio, Castellano has a collection of textile sculptures and graphic works that are stuffed with human hair, and in his performances, he often uses blood–which begs the question, why this obsession with the human body? Castellano responds, "The body is immediate. I’m interested in the body as primary material and as a conservation of energy. You save energy if you work from the body, because if you paint a canvas you need oleos, the canvas, brushes, etc. But to work with the body, you only need what you already have, the immediate. Fen Ma Liu Ming’s work fascinates me precisely because this Chinese performance artist works with the immediacy of his body, his performance only needs him to work, it doesn’t need any filler."
Although most people would cringe at the idea of touching a human skull, these pieces are surprisingly tangible since the engravings on the bone have taken away the initial grotesque appearance, and lend it a disturbing beauty. The skulls incite a strange fascination in viewers, where the imagination of the artist and the scientific reality of who we are combine to form a strange experience. Castellano claims that he is not interested in a morbid exchange with the viewer, but rather that he wants the audience to appreciate the carvings of the bone, and the metalwork incrustations. He explains, "I’m looking for the aesthetic appreciation of the taboo, I want to show how beautiful the skull can be. All religions believe in the spirit, but I only believe in the scientific- for example, I don’t believe that the soul exists, I think only memory exists, and that memory exists within the brain, and the brain is within the skull. The cranium is a type of box, an encasing which contains individual and collective memory, and what I do is take out what is desired from within that box, and express it in a palpable way; by beautifying it and applying symbols that are collectively desired, I take away the metaphysical aspect, and it becomes just a piece of art. Duchamp took the bathroom urinal, which is fabricated en masse, and I use something that is much more massive than the urinal, I take it and I turn it into art. I’m playing the same game, but I’m decorating, I’m adding beauty to something we all have."
Perhaps the most uncanny element of this strange art form is the way in which Castellano finds the human bones. According to Castellano, you can get anything in China. Although he admits the skulls are from Tibet, he doesn’t reveal his sources; all he admits is that they come from the underground. If these types of art trends continue, (and they most likely will), then perhaps in the future we will be able to donate our bodies not only to science, but also to art.
