| I
never thought that 2004 would be such a special year
for visual arts in China. Before the opening of 2004
Shanghai Biennial Exhibition, whose theme is “techniques
of the visible”, all kinds of visual art exhibitions
have pressed forward toward the front of the stage,
searching for the opportunity to show themselves to
the public. Mass movements often influence the sub-consciousness
in Chinese culture, and art in China is no exception.
Once a theme or a direction is proclaimed, everyone
rushes forward following a slogan. In typical “Cultural
Revolution” terminology, it can be called “starting
a new climax in visual art”, which will certainly
make Hung Liu laugh. Why? Because she is too familiar
with such slogans.
The
memories of both words and images together constitute
the memories of every human being. For many years Hung
Liu’s efforts have been to look for the traces
of memories from paintings over the last thousand years,
from photos of Chinese people taken by foreigners, and
from the pictures of China taken since 1949. However,
why do so many people suddenly generate such a great
interest in visual art?
On
the one hand, unlimited cultural and historical treasures
are hidden in the ancient time stream of visual images.
Chinese people can point to the original sources in
philology, literature, philosophy, art, music, traditional
gardens/landscaping, and so forth. The pleasure of coming
across these visual images has helped form special Chinese-style
paintings. On the other hand, advanced modern science
and technology ensure artists use visible techniques
and invisible imagination to reveal a totally new meaning
for visual images in the current cultural environment.
Though living in the U.S., Hung Liu possesses the original
inspiration and image sources from her vivid memory
of a certain period she experienced in China, from 1948
to 1984, which still shapes her imaginative world.
For
example, the suffering reflected in her Red River, painted
in 1998, about the bitter life of Chinese laborers,
is not unique to China, but commonly exists around the
world. Moreover, today what is happening to the "Red
River" is also happening to the "Blue River",
and the rivers of other colors. The painting King’s
Sky, Queen’s Land borrows from a painting drawn
by an emperor of the Song Dynasty as background to display
an extensive landscape, where a camel, a human figure,
and flowers and birds are composed together on the canvas
to visualize an inexplicably fictitious reality constituted
by the combination of images and memory, history and
culture, the King’s sky and the Queen’s
land. The painting Cliche: Peasant Family, set against
a bright sun-rise, is a group photo of three members
from an ordinary Chinese family, which is overlapped
with images of scholar's rocks and flowers. Their look
of dull anxiety reveals the kindness of average Chinese
people, especially of the peasants, whose faces represent
China’s face, since China is a large agricultural
country. Another revelation is the utterly helpless
condition Chinese peasants are now facing. Through this
painting, we are actually looking at our profound inner
side. The painting Leap depicts three blossoming boys
jumping into a river; in the distance, a painted circle
is like a shadowy moon luring their leap.
The
scene in One Thousand Miles seems absurd. Two strong
men bind a swift horse’s legs. Then comes the
question "once a horse’s legs are bound,
how can we expect it to run
ground of a moon one thousand miles, even if it is a
swift horse?"To reach one thousand miles, either
it must imagine galloping in its mind; or, tear away
from the bindings and gallop a thousand miles. Are human's
not the same? In Parachute, a dreamy parachute suddenly
appears on the left side above an old peasant eating
from a bowl, which appears to be a metaphor of the reality
of the collision and contradiction between contemporary
technology and agriculture. Today, as modernization
progresses on the ground of China day and night, a promising
age begins! How will we face our spirituality with material
wealth falling from the sky? It’s a question put
forward by Hung Liu.
When
surveying Hung Liu’s paintings over the past few
years, it’s apparent that she continues to carry
on a love affair with Chinese history. She uses her
paintbrush to criticize the realities of China, to expose
the contradictions within Chinese society as well as
the collisions within the individual human heart.
Thus,
although she lives outside her homeland, Hung Liu's
heart remains at the Great Wall - heavy, anguished,
yet passionate. No matter whether her memory of visual
images is an addition to or a subtraction from reality,
she still gathers all her passion at the end of a paintbrush
to create a thoroughly vivid description of her personal
understanding of reality in China that touches and compels
every spectator.
Zhang Qing
Director of Shanghai Biennale Office
Curator of 2004 Shanghai Biennale
September 2004
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