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I am concerned with the impact of ongoing social changes on human life. My art is inspired by the stories that happen in the urban city where I live. Everyday life plays out different stories of all sorts, those containing happiness, anger, sadness and enjoyment. From my perspective, I think all of these stories are created because of a very interesting, chase-based relationship between human and materials. In living in cities, one cannot get by without clothing, food, shelter and transportation. The most important factor that reflects the tempo of a city is its architecture. In our life, we see brand new buildings built and large streets reconstructed everyday. People speak highly of all these exciting events. |
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Wang Qingsong
I am concerned with the impact of ongoing social changes on human life. My art is inspired by the stories that happen in the urban city where I live. Everyday life plays out different stories of all sorts, those containing happiness, anger, sadness and enjoyment. From my perspective, I think all of these stories are created because of a very interesting, chase-based relationship between human and materials.
In living in cities, one cannot get by without clothing, food, shelter and transportation. The most important factor that reflects the tempo of a city is its architecture. In our life, we see brand new buildings built and large streets reconstructed everyday. People speak highly of all these exciting events. One can travel around the major avenues along the third and second ring roads and be amazed by the high-rising billboards that contain advertisements for LVMH and Gucci as well as other fabricated, fancy names for real-estate development projects such as Park Avenue, Riviera, Manhattan and etc. When these gigantic billboards are attached to the highest high-rise buildings, they force people to pay attention. In this moment, one loses consciousness of where one is and, at the same time, one also doubts where the soul of this city is located.
In Competition and Billboards, I applied eye-catching, huge billboards and big-character wallpaper in order to create chaotic scenarios. In Competition, one views about 20 people who seem to be in a fight crazily gripping the ads and putting them on the wall. Advertisements can bring profit and power—more gains obtained faster and more efficiently. Today, this brand may wind up being replaced by its competitor—a competitor which, tomorrow, might put its advertisement in an even more eye-catching place upon the façade of some bit of public architecture. I spent a month or so handwriting the 600 posters in traditional Chinese ink and POP pens that include, altogether, about 2000 ads, from airplanes ads to life necessities.
Billboard reflects the gigantic ads on the outer wall of the China World Trade Tower. I wrote on this piece the words “Art Works of Wang Qingsong” and included a website and the telephone number “58888888,” which signifies self-promotion and also a huge fortune. Passersby either stop to look up or keep going. I hope these two works provide people with a hint so that they might reflect upon how we can be dragged along by the hyperbole contained by most ads.
Home was inspired by my childhood memories. We often witnessed, whether in the movies or at home, that the elderly often put their valuables right into the walls. I could never figure out why this was done during my childhood. So, in this work I set up a dilapidated home with broken walls that hid a lot of treasure troves like daily garbage, computer monitors, keyboards, newspapers, books, worn-out clothes, chemicals and etc. Perhaps this particular photo explains how high-rise developers aided me in resolving my childhood confusion on this matter; they show me the reason they bulldoze the old houses. The point is to replace them with smooth- and empty-walled, high-rise buildings, but they also know exactly what is hiding behind the walls and take the time needed to excavate those treasures.
In this desire-filled society, everyone attempts to satiate their endless desires. I am one of them, observing, emulating and documenting this colorful world.
