November 22, 2003

Batool Mahmood visits the on-going exhibition of contemporary Chinese art in Paris

Bursting with vitality and a newfound dynamism, the exhibition “Alors, La Chine”, showing appropriately enough at the Centre Pompidou Museum of Modern Art in Paris, showcases the diverse work of over fifty ‘new-age’ Chinese artists. The work on show has been culled from a multi-disciplinary field that encompasses video installations, sculpture, architecture and plastic arts, amongst others.

While the exhibits do not give us an in-depth perspective of each genre, they allow the viewer to see how the rapid pace of development within China has influenced the local art scene. Many of the mostly young artists have studied or traveled abroad and this, combined with the influences of a changing society at home, has resulted in a rich body of work that incorporates new thoughts and ideas and is reflective of the changing times.

Entry to the exhibition is through a floor to a ceiling arch by Xu Tan (b.1957), who lives and works in Shanghai and gives us a taste of things to come. The installation is called: ‘To build the arch of Happiness’ and is constructed entirely of polystyrene boxes that have been strung together vertically to create ‘walls’. The ubiquitous plastic boxes are used in China as lunch boxes, doggy bags, take-out carriers, etc. and symbolize everyday food. The installation conveys the message that in the new ‘throw-away’ culture, things as banal as these boxes are artificial and pollute the environment.

The exhibition occupies a large hall with suspended screens, sculpture, paintings, etc., and traditional rattan floor stools are strewn across the ground in front of the installations that allow the viewer to sit down and absorb the oft-changing scenes. The arrival of digital technology and the affordability of video cameras have given Chinese cinema a creative boost and have enabled viewers to catch a glimpse of life within the country. One large screen, for example, shows a train journey and the mass migration of people to places where they can find work. This particular train is carrying people from Sichuan, which exports its labour to the cotton growing area of Xinjiang where work is available in the cotton fields and workers can earn ten to twenty times more than they would at home.

Many of the people travelling together from small villages have never seen a train before except perhaps on television. The camera pans across a crowded compartment and then moves outside the train to take in the plight of two young girls who have been separated from their village companions. Desperate to enter the compartment, the girls plead with the guards on the platform to let them get on. The guards refuse, pulling people out of the choked interior so that they can close the doors. The girls persist and finally manage to climb in through the windows like many others.

The camera follows the girls into the crammed compartment and an invisible narrator starts to ask the passengers a variety of questions such as: “Why are you going on this train and what do you think is the most important thing in life?” The answers are revealing. Many of the passengers are women who are leaving behind husbands and children. Money figures prominently in their response but there are other reasons, such as a woman who is making the journey to find her husband who has not contacted her in two years.

Another woman has been duped into marrying a man several years her senior and is now returning home with her son after a visit to her parents. She says she has not told her parents that she is depressed and desperately unhappy. This is because she doesn’t want to cause them distress and as for herself, she now lives only for the sake of her son. Family ties, respect for elders and the spirit of sacrifice are very strong in China and this comes across again and again. People say they are willing to leave home and make this sacrifice for their children just as their ancestors made sacrifices for them.

The quest for money and material things has become paramount in a society that has discovered consumerism and is racing to acquire all the trappings of the modern age. This is a recurring theme in most of the installations that deal with modern-day China. The installation by artist Shi Jinsung, for example, is called “Sweet Life” and is made up of a long plank of glass that has been suspended from the ceiling. On this, the artist has placed dozens of everyday objects of desire, such as perfume bottles and calculators that have been coated in thick globs of golden caramel (hence the title of the installation) so that their shape is somewhat deformed. The artist’s message is clear: Material things provide fleeting pleasure and are not here to stay.

Another installation by Xing Danwen (b.1967) highlights the problems created by the ‘throw-away’ society that we live in. His floor-to-ceiling installation called “Disconnexion” is made up of nine square photographs showing the discarded parts of computers whose ‘internal plumbing’ has been disemboweled. One square shows green electronic circuit boards, another broken keyboards while yet another shows old mobile phones. The photographs have been taken in the province of Guangdong in the south of China where “e-trash” from Japan, Korea and the United States is sent to be recycled.

Here every village has houses that specialize in recycling one particular component and the family lives amidst this trash. The artist asks the viewer to ponder on the millions of new products that are bought every day, the millions more that are thrown away without thought of the ecological nightmare that is then unleashed in one corner of China.

But while life remains tough in China’s villages, the cities have a different story to tell. An architectural model of Peking, for example, highlights the rapid development that has occurred in the large cities. The installation occupies 50 square meters of floor space. At its center are the ‘Forbidden City’ with its tiered red and gold pagoda and the Tianamen square. Surrounding these landmarks are the new Plexiglas buildings and modern homes; the skyline now dotted with high-rise apartments and commercial buildings whose modernity is accentuated by illuminations that shine through the Plexiglas.

The buildings represent the face of a new China, opened to the forces of globalization, its run-away economic growth causing a mass rural exodus to the cities that attract capital and investment from around the world.

And while the old city wall still encircles Peking, the modern city now dominates with only a few vestiges of the old remaining. There is a sprinkling of the gray brick houses of yesteryear that have not yet been pulled down, huddled together haphazardly, fostering a sense of community and a way of life that is perhaps being lost. We get a sense of the frantic pace of construction that is taking place with large open construction sites and an evolving landscape of football fields, roads and artificial lakes.

The new dynamism that is now prevalent in the fabric of life, is a far cry from the restraint and austerity of the Cultural Revolution. Then, everything was dedicated to the glory of Mao and we are reminded of this while looking at an exhibit of Mao memorabilia. Arranged in a long, glass case are statues and everyday objects such as plates, school bags, mugs and clocks as well as badges, posters and stickers all bearing the likeness of Mao. It is a reminder of a time when ‘real’ art went underground but was not snuffed out completely and has now re-emerged stronger than ever.