Chen Ligyang- Hanging Scroll

Hanging Scroll
1999
Blood on paper
20 ft. x 12 in.
source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

And i though it was flower petals and butterflies....
It amazing that someone would think of using menstrual blood, and not just anyone else's menstrual blood, but the artist's very own, to create a "painting". I was like 'ugh....err...ok... wow." first reaction upon finding out did throw me off a bit, but hey it is quite fasinating.

being cynical and all, i thought " well, Andy Warhol did said 'art is what you can get away with'. you got something interesting and shocking enough, you got a winner, and get away with it." so i thought that the artisit is using blood as a shockers. I mean, it's contmeporary chinese art, anything can happen in avent-gard. blood painting, yeah, heard that before. but menstural blood, humm, you got avent-gard! and i thought. yea yea you make up a story about what you are trying to express about this shocking move, breed a solid enough philosophy and ppl will go crazy and fall in love with it.

But i think... there is something here. menstural blood is very womanly, you don't see any other category of human existence having menstral period. so it is in ways an uniques expression of the female gender. and using her own blood, that says to be the artist is a very direct, honest, and interesting person. She is exposing her intimate realm to us. it's basically saying, "this is me, and my blood, i am out here for you to see, take it or leave it." I think this confrontational directness has a strange charm to it.

besides, the painting does has a aesthetic beauty to it, it's actually really cool!

Zhao Bandi

A Tale of Love Gone Wrong for Pandaman
2003
Video, black-and-white, sound, 15 minutes




Block SARS, Defend the Homeland
2003
C-print
Approx. 36 x 54 in.

source:http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html\

hahah, i love it.
it's the love affair between pandaman and panda. the vidwo is so nonsensical. at the end of of i was like huh? but it's great. I love the choice of music. the classic "butterfly dream" suggests a deeply loving relationship, but the poison tongue girlfiend is not the subject of his love indeed. I think it's the panda doll.

He was so imitmate with all the petting and caressing the panda, my god, no wonder his girlfriend left him. but still. artists... in some ways, what else do you expect? I read somewhere that the panda represent the one child policy. but... hum... I still don't get how the intimacy with the panda has to do with it. I mean, if you don't got mommy, you can't have a baby! so rather a stuffed panda than a real person relationship?

Liu Wei- It Looks Like a Landscape

It Looks Like a Landscape
2004
Digital black-and-white photograph
120 in. x 20 ft.
source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

Am i suppose to take this seriously? Damned if i do and damned if i don't. I really wish I had near sightedness when entering the gallery, but even so the bodies are still obvious.

"Butts!" i thought. it's a funny thought, i mean, i don't know why people thing real looking, ugly naked bodies are funny, but they are. so am I suppose to burst out laughing? Is this work meant to be inspire that comic effect or not? How serious can I take this?

and the idea of having this in the museum. it's great. watching my own reaction looking and thinking about this photo is a reflection opportunity. it's like " i see butts mooning each other and pubic hair flaming out, not to mention flab of fatness squeezed into folds, am I not suppose to be amused?" And yes, i feel like i am not suppose to for some reason, because of the setting of the display, in a museum, which empowers the photo as a serious work of art. which it is. but i am obligated to contain my expression, and try not to be shallow and observe the beauty and genius elements of the photo. But hey! if i purposely refrain myself from laughing because i am somehow influenced by my environment to do so, and only because of the environment that I do so, than that really makes the observation shallow. This is how I think this photo is so interesting. it's got its creative and artistic values, but how it effects viewer reactions and in some ways manipulate that reaction is what's fascinating to me about this photo.

Mao coat

I am kneeling on the floor looking at this coat, the positioning of the coat at this part of the museum and inside a white tape lined box and hanging on a hospital coat hanger looking metal hanger, makes it look rather haunting

with the female body painted inside the coat, headless... with a hole in her chest, make it looks like a carcass, on display, a body in a coat, hanging on a metal hanger in taped box with some paint spots from the random and unfinished strokes at the bottom rim of the coat, and the not completely colored in parts of the woman's leg, where it's chopped off by the end rim of the coat, creates an effect of a chopped off amputated female body with orange skin, sickly, her skin color, the blood/paint, drips, and still bleeding off. morbid... unclean... but very sterile and hospital like environment.

the coat is the canvas
it looks old and new at the same time. green long coat with burgundy brown faux fur like fleece collar. the folding marks suggests its new-ness, doesn't look like it's been worn before. but the color, a dark shady Green and grey inner shade creates an aged feeling.

i can't see much of the body but it's a voluptuous body with brighter shading on the breast. the rest of the body is darken with shadow, the breasts almost has a "bikini" tan effect, the lighter color shading almost shapes into a bra or bikini triangular space.

the charcoal looking outline for the body is rough at the neck and shoulder and the coloring of the body does not start until the lower neck area. the coloring and outlining is realistic from chest and below.

there is a mouth-like hole (lining of the hold looks like lips) right in the middle of the body's upper chest, with grey color shading around it. A wound?

the feeling of the body is unclean, due to the shading and mix of darker color used on the body. the form of the body is very feminine and beautiful, but the fragmentation(covering of the cover through the folds of the coat and the limitation of the space provided on the canvas) makes it dark and damaged to a certain extent. Again, this look is like a young female body, but heavily "stained" and "rough"(shading) yet warm (earthy tone and the idea of a coat) and muddy.

Obsessive Memories continue

I wonder if these women are prostitutes. their clothing and posture definitely seems flashy attractive and erotic.

are they for sale? I think they are. as people and as object, like the porcelain dolls are objects.

objectification of the female body and identity. cheap box containers suggest they can be owned and placed/stacked around and be mobile. yet at the same time the porcelain suggest their vulnerability and fragile nature. the empty interior (the "body" is empty, the clothes flow on top like a mold. as if saying these are figures with no contents. thus suggests a lack of individual person hood and a sense of empty content.

Liu Jianhua- Obsessive Memories

Obsessive Memories
2003
Installation: porcelain
25 figures, approx. 12 x 3 x 2 in. each; dimensions variable
Source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

20 female bodies, fragmented, placed on a square raised white platform. Boxes containers of these fragmented female bodies lay on the floor besides the White platform.

10 boxes on each side, they vary in sizes, custom to the bodies they contain, but now are empty. they have the same color and pattern. typical Chinese silk covered boxes with ivory clasp closure. but these ivory closures are probably cheap plastic replacements.

the silk cover are a olive brownish green with octagon patterns. they are stacked together. there's like obviously padding inside...for protection. the texture of the boxes looks worn. the silk patters of some looks like they have been scratched.

the general feeling of these boxes: cheap and massly produced. museum lightsdoes give it a beautiful sheen. reflection of the silk but overall, they are stack together like "things" with no other exceptional values...

The bodies are curveous, attractive young bodies. the proportion of these bodies are visually the same. voluptuous breast and hips. long and well shaped legs. textures of procelain makes them look shiny and smooth. the color of the body is only shown on the leg. given the bodies are covered with cheongsam. and they are headless and armless.

10 of the bodies wears high heels in bright colors. regardless of the type of shoes these figures have red soles on their shoes, like the shoes of that brand...Chrstian ...something. of those weaing shoes, the toe nails are painted in bright colors

the cheongsam garment on these figures are beautiful, richly patterened and in soft feminie colors. some are metalic colors. colors that attrats attention. FLower pattersns, plant and leaf patterens, poka-dots, wavy lines... shimmery and plain ones.

the postures are very erotic, sexual poses. some posters are identicale, 3 of laying on the back with raise legs stack one on another. another three have similar poses. all the posible are erotic in the way that although covvered up, female private areas are shown at some angles.
overall these figurres are uniformed, not very differentiable in terms of personhood.

Liu Ye- Gun

Gun
2001–2002
Oil on canvas
72 x 144 in.
Source:http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

Orange sky...
I didn't see the gun first time I walked by it... now it makes more sense... or not...
The sky is sooo orange, even the little girl is inflamed with the orangeness of it. All cute and plump, sitting on what appears to be a tree stump with ribbons in her hair. or maybe just a trunk of a very tall tree that got cut off, because from this perspective, she seems to be somewhere very high up, close to the sky, so close that she is bathing in the orange light.

I like the fuzziness of the pine greens. fuzziness creates a soft imagery, like something of an imaginary imagery. Yet it is interesting that the overpowering huge space and impressive color of the sky at the same time compliment the imagery and eats up the imagery. By eating up I mean everything is tinted with this orangeness and that the landscape for example on the left lower corner of the painting is completely eat up by the dense orangeness that only the form of a mountain landscape and be barely visible.

i think the gun is what takes me back to reality. before seeing the gun, the painting is all very "Alice in wonderful" for me. but after seeing the gun, I suddenly don't know what to do with the painting anymore.

The gun makes this cute painting so sad. the way the little girl face away from us, holding a gun, suggest some sort of an impending doom or battle she is anticipating and she needs the gun to protect herself. She's just sitting there, waiting, for something terrible to happen. the overwhelming orange sky might bring in the implication of storminess, it's said to be the color of the sky before a storm. the fact that everything in the painting is tinted with the orange hue explains that nothing in that world can escape from what's coming, and the best one can do is prepare. The tiny girl sits there, waiting for the monster that's somewhere inside the opaque orangeness

Geng Xue- Han Xizai Dinner, No. 2 2007

Han Xizai Dinner, No. 2
2007
Installation: porcelain with glaze
Dimensions variable
Source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

CUTENESS!!
These are sooo adorable!! I love how the color and shape of the entire piece complement so well! the colors are light and sparse, so not too heavy on the coloring, all the figures and furnitures are all rounded. the texture looks smooth and shiny. but most of all i love the expressions on these figuines!! the host-looking dude has this serious expression, but just look at him!! so cute and small and rounded!! the contrast of his seriousness and composition makes him look all the more adorable~

the tiny dishes on the tables are AMAZING! so much detail and yet still so well done~ it's interesting tho, how the coloring and dawning of the figures seems very loose yet if you look at it's actually really detailed and well done!! I kind of like the loose strokes tho, gives it a flowy easy feeling to the piece and the atmosphere of it.

Miao Xiaochun- The Great Wall 2000 Years Ago

The Great Wall 2000 Years Ago
2001
Black-and-white photograph
50 x 144 in.
Source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

I think this is so funny. I am not sure what it's trying to say, but it's funny. It has a past met present feeling to it. the grey color makes it seem like a old photo, but the quality suggest it is impossible for it to be old.

I don't know what to think in terms of which figure does not belong in the picture. I mean, look at it, the title really influence what views think about the image. if the title is untiltled, things might be interpret differently.

my first impression is that the guy in the back does not belong to the picture. this is a old wall, as the title suggests it's like 2000 years ago. so the guy in the back is displaced. Almost like when a pedestrian just happen to get into the movie set for some old time movie. How strange and out of place! and precisely because of the displacement, there is a comic effect.

but if you think about it, the quality of the photo suggest the presentness of the setting. the wall is still there now, is it not? so it is a portrayal of the now. so what's the guy in ancient attire doing here. He should be the displaced figure. someone doing a dress up thing for an event that has to do with empirical China perhaps.

I think what the artist is trying to say is that the Chinese people are displaced between the past and present. Like they are stuck in a funny place now just like the photo shows. and the present day looking guy is changing his clothes, suggesting change in the identity of the people, but people who are still located in a very traditional China (as a location) and its history as suggested by the great wall.

Liu Zheng- The Four Beauties 2004

The Four Beauties 2004
2004
Color photograph
4 parts, 39 x 78 in. each
Source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/mahjongartists/index.html

There is something quite unsettling about this set. They almost look too real to be real, at the same time too fake because it seem so real. I think Liu is trying to depict the famous Four beauties of Chinese history; although I can't really pin point the exact story for three of them, I am pretty sure the cubby lady is Yang Guifei.

I like the contrasting color tones. Dark, pitch black backgrounds with green a green aura like shade here and there.. and the general color of the furnishing and clothings are cold color tones like black freen and blue. I like how these cold colors are contrasting against the soft flesh color and nakedness of the women.

way only the women are naked?

All the men are fully clothed, even over clothed. the female bodies are naked and in many secens in danger and fragile.

um... I wonder if the Yang Guifei print belongs to the set at all! in every other picture there's always someone close to dying or is action or being act upon by some kind of physical violence... man trying to cut his throat with a sword... man executing another man with a HUGE sword... women being choke to death right next to a already dead women... and Yang Guifei stands there with her ladies in waiting with not much going on...strange...

no one looks happy in the entire set!! they all show negative expressions.. bordom, fear, surprise, contempt, weariness, speculation, doubt, scheming, sadness, denial, worry, struggle, agony, envy/ jealousy, ditry looks, and the expression one gets when being choked to death... #__#

These female bodies are not beautiful, yet not grotesque... they just look real. What is Liu trying to say? that the beauties are no more beautiful than any women? or is he purposely trading the stadard of beauty down? In a way these female bodies are like.. meat, like sex objects, exoposed and their private parts not hidden, these female figures behave as if they are clothed.

I donno... these are fasinating images but I can't bring myself to stare at them for too long, somehow make me feel a little revolting and yuck... I wonder why...