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