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Glimpses of Bhutan's Sacred World

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Glimpses of Bhutan's Sacred World 8 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2008 SUNDAY MORNING POST Edited by Kevin Kwong [email protected] It’s all about the individual for the new generation of mainland artists, writes Kristina Perez Me and mine hen Fei’s Beijing studio Chen has long absorbed foreign looks like a nursery for influences. He recalls picking up a horror film producers: traditional Chinese paintbrush to it’s packed with a draw his first portrait – of Mickey mint-condition collection Mouse – when he was six. Cof dolls from Hollywood films such Today, his psychedelic-patterned as Friday the 13th and Predator. painting style centres on the Fellow artist Zhao Yiquan is also into immediacy of life – his apartment, toys, particularly Transformers. dogs and girlfriend – and the raw The two twentysomethings emotion of western horror and might be called geeks in the west, adult movies. but on the mainland they are niubi, Chen was an art director in films part of a “Me generation” of hipsters who became frustrated with its who were raised under the one-child production values and quit to policy yet whose art has been express his storytelling and desire for influenced by the internet, comics, special effects on a different canvas. video games and globalisation. “In my pretend world, I am the Chen and Zhao’s art will be bad guy who kills everyone without featured in an exhibition of works by taking responsibility,” he says. six niubi artists at Schoeni Art Gallery, in Central, later this month. The displays include paintings, Celebrities look sculpture, mixed digital media, 3D animation and mixed-media charming but they photography in an exhibition its may have made organisers say makes a stark comparison between their art and a lot of sacrifices that by artists from the 85 New Wave, a movement whose lives were to be a celebrity defined by the Cultural Revolution ...................................................... and the opening to the west. Zhang Yexing, explaining The niubi artists and their work his work, Series No 6 (right) have benefited from China’s economic rise and interaction with Fellow exhibitor Zhang Yexing the world, making them more presents his Curtain Series No 6, a individualistic and distant from the provocative work that depicts a harsh realities faced by the previous headless woman spreading her legs generation, the exhibitors say. in the air before a group of men The work of the 85 New Wave is toting mobile-phone cameras. about as relevant today as the The work exaggerates the previous five millennia of Chinese infamous image of American actress culture, says Zhao, who is from Sharon Stone crossing her legs in the Shenyang in Liaoning province. film Basic Instinct and exposes the “If an ancient society used wood underbelly of the mainland’s for light and a modern person came entertainment industry and the up with a candle then he would be a ubiquitous “casting couch”, says the great person in their society because 27-year-old Central Academy of Fine he came up with something new,” Arts graduate, also from Shenyang. the 26-year-old says. “At that time “Celebrities look charming but there was no contemporary art in they may have made a lot of China. Now art in China is on a par sacrifices to be a celebrity,” Zhang Photos courtesy of Schoeni Art Gallery with art in the west.” says. “And I feel sad about that. But Chen agrees. He says the Cultural once you decide to be in the game, Revolution is of little relevance to you need to play the game. That’s him and finds western symbols their life.” my childhood I think it was lonely Fine Arts. Fraught with tension, Zhang Yexing’s Curtain Series No 6 much more familiar than socialist Being an only child has also but it’s not always the truth,” the despair and sexuality, her works (above); Zhao Yiquan’s interest in totems. “Coca-Cola is closer to me influenced the niubi art. 30-year-old from Sichuan says. explore the relationship between toys can be seen in Interesting No 5 than Chairman Mao [Zedong],” the Chen Ke recalls spending a lot of “Memory is also imagination.” violence and female beauty: her (left); Chen Ke’s Fire No 1 (right) 25-year-old from Shaanxi province time alone as a child, playing with Chen Ke is showing a series of Fire No 1, for instance features a says. “I would rather paint Coca- dolls and animating them with her photographs that she took while woman covered with roses and a So she channels the conflicts Cola than Chairman Mao.” But then own stories. “When I think about attending the Sichuan Academy of gun to her head. between the adult and adolescent Another Sichuan native, Zhou worlds into her clay-animation Jinhua, also 30, uses photography shorts called Rabbit Street, which and photo-realist oil painting to examines Beijing hutong life document his interpretation of through the eyes of its rabbit the changes that are occurring in protagonists, who run a television mainland society. repair shop. The changes have brought more Feng left her hometown at 16 to opportunities for female artists, says attend boarding school in Beijing. fellow artist Feng Wei, sporting a T- She jokes that her parents still see shirt inscribed “Shopping Monster”. her as a teenager a decade later. However, the expectations of gender “Even now, I can’t get home too roles have not changed much in the late in Beijing – they call me from past 20 years, says the 27-year-old, Harbin,” she says. “I’ve been here who was raised in Harbin in for 10 years. My parents are still Heilongjiang province. keeping a close eye on me because “I don’t think there’s a big I am an only child, like most of my difference between the women in generation. They want me to get Chen Fei says his sister born bad thing. “I find it is pretty good my generation and the previous married but I’m not ready yet. It’s in 1989 is different from his because the last generation had no generation,” she says, sitting in her a pretty common feeling among contemporaries. “My sister is ‘me’ at all,” he says. classroom at the Central Academy my girlfriends.” very young, very immature,” ...................................................... of Fine Arts. “My generation has Critics might say the he says. “She doesn’t have to think Niubi Newbie Kids – Me Generation more economic independence. But “Me generation” artists are about reality. The youngsters don’t Chinese Artists Mixed Media the expectation that women will self-centred, but the niubi say have pressure.” Exhibition, Sept 19-Oct 13, Schoeni Art take care of the family hasn’t teenagers born in the 1990s are But Zhao Yiquan says this Gallery, 21-31 Old Bailey St, Central. changed much.” more so. emerging individuality is not a Inquiries: 2869 8802 Glimpses of Bhutan’s sacred world A gilded cast copper sculpture of the Buddha Maitreya, part of a show of Bhutanese art touring the US. Photo: AP ...................................................... paintings that have never before left because they were covered with tiny status, three to five Buddhist monks government’s Audrey McAvoy the remote, mountainous kingdom. black spots where bugs had eaten are accompanying the exhibit Department of Johnston suffers from another scene, he’s a human prince Assistant curator John Johnston Even in Bhutan, the public rarely through the animal-skin glue. In around the world, praying twice a Culture and a monk motion sickness on who offers himself as food to a scaled steep cliffs to reach a bronze gets to see the rich collection of some cases, rats ate chunks out of day for the protection of the from Bhutan’s official Bhutan’s windy roads and famished tiger that is too weak to sculpture of a Buddha at a small work, now due to travel to New York, the scrolls’ silk borders. paintings and sculptures. monastic body fears heights. “There feed her two cubs. Himalayan monastery 3,962 metres San Francisco and Europe over the American museums have hosted One monk, Sherab Dorji, says accompanied him on would be this scary little Some of the art shows deities above sea level. And where there was next two years. Bhutanese art before. The Peabody he’s never seen such a collection of these treks, crumbly trail on a striking poses from centuries-old no trail, he and two companions Almost all the art is normally kept Essex Museum in Salem, work back home; he walked through vouching for the cliff,” Johnston says. sacred dances that are still grabbed trees to pull themselves up in active temples, monasteries and Massachusetts, organised a the display every day when it was project. Even so, “And on the other performed regularly across Bhutan. the mountain. dzong – fortress-like buildings home Bhutanese textile show in the held at the Honolulu Academy of Johnston had to side would be a High-definition video of the dances After seven hours of trekking they to both monasteries and mid-1990s, but the exhibit didn’t Arts earlier this year. “I explain to all win the trust of temple with who plays on screens mounted on walls reached the 60cm-tall gilt bronze government offices. About one- feature religious works. Others have the visitors, ‘If you have faith in God, the monks. knows what kind of next to the paintings and sculptures. figure of Buddha Vajrasattva, which quarter of the items were gathered shown sacred Tibetan paintings and then you surely will be blessed by “We never art inside.” The show was a hit in Hawaii, is said to bridge the divide between from far-flung monasteries and sculptures similar in style to this art,’ ” Dorji says.
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