Yue Minjun clones images of himself on canvas
Yue Minjun clones images of himself on canvas
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta
To use the self to express issues of significance has become a
way for many contemporary artists to comment on what is happening
around them.
In the case of Yue Minjun, the renowned Chinese avant-garde
artist, whose work is on show at CP Artspace here, Yue's work
started at a time when criticizing the government was taboo.
Li Xianting, one of the best-known Chinese art theorists, once
said that was an ironic personal response to the spiritual vacuum
and folly of modern-day China. It is as if the mass of
contradictions faced everyday were so absurdly dense that they
led to a sort of pathological dissociation from self, expressed
through these grotesque portraits.
It is a well known fact that overwhelming situations often
cause people to go crazy or to laugh hysterically to avoid
confrontation and retain an inner peace. This comes to mind when
looking at Yue Minjun's faces on canvas; the faces of the artist
that all seem about to burst into hilarious laughter.
The images immediately bring a smile to whoever looks at them
-- the first impression that the pictures give is that of grown-
ups in the act of children's games or telling jokes in an
atmosphere of boys together. But the likeness of these all-
smiling faces also reminds one of clones and makes one wonder
what those big happy faces might denote. Figures appear as if
involved in children's war-games with thumb and forefinger set in
the form of a gun but are lacking of the tension typical of such
a game, and the insincerely merry, knowing faces seem to hold
some deeper, more sinister, meaning.
In the 500cm by 182cm canvas titled Fighting, Yue paints a row
of his clones, each with different detailed cracks around the
eyes, seemingly bursting in laughter as they point their finger
to an invisible object as aircraft fly over their heads and tanks
and dark clouds rise up from the bottom of the frame. The
contrast between the laughing faces with the pointing fingers,
the tanks and the dark smoke rising from the bottom is black,
black humor indeed.
The undeniable pain can be detected in Yue's faces are evident
in the surreal painting Black Cloud, in which a man points to his
forehead signaling that he is crazy. But while his wide-open
mouth with more than usual the number of white teeth may suggest
laughter, his facial expression tells another story.
Yue continues his commentary in the political pop art form
that developed from the late 20th century Chinese avant garde, a
movement which gained momentum after the bloody event at Tianamen
in 1989.
While Yue's comments may have been triggered by personal
experiences and observations, Jim Supangkat, the curator of the
exhibition says the self in these self-portraits is no longer
personal.
This shift in self-identification relates to the changing
reality around him, the impact of the advances made in technical,
industrial, communications and economics systems.
To deal with the threatening complexity of life that could
grow into terror, Yue Minjun relaxes into would-be merriness.
It is a way out that many people in stressful circumstances
may wish to follow.
The 42-two-year old artist who was born in Daquin, He Long
Jiang, China, and studied at Hebei Normal University, has made
these smiling faces his trademark.
Included in group exhibitions since 1998, he had his first
solo exhibition in 2000 in London. His solo at CP Artspace here
is his fifth solo show.
Post Auratic Self Portrait of Yue Minjun, a solo exhibition by
Yue Minjun, runs until April 5 at CP Artspace, Jl. Suryopranoto
67A, Jakarta 10160, tel. 3448126 ext. 604