An Exhibition Review: Visual Dominance by Ye Minjun
7th Shanghai Biennale 2008, Shanghai Art Museum
Sept. 08 – Nov. 16, 2008
For everything is striving to be larger than the Texas state of USA, besides CCTV Building and Forbidden City in Beijing, China's contemporary art subject - a dinosaur hybridized with the bald headed artist - also could not escape the over bloated ego trip in their respective overwhelming visual dominance. Most often, this similar art scene and art subjects are only decors more than meaningful art matters.
The technicolor forms conjure a delightful visual experience and imaginative infantile fantasy in a themed park. They have typical facial expressions: eyes-closed and toothy smiles, human heads and a few of them with serpentine necks now replacing the heads of all dinosaurs, almost up front at eye level, on the floor, close to ceiling height. These dinosaurs in various scales can be some playful interactive art experience in live size. It is also excessively easy to identify these three-dimensional pre-historic creatures transformed out of the Hollywood blockbuster movies.
Intended by the artist to expound on the meaning of urban experience via art experience, the selected extinct dinosaurs connote a visually overwhelming urban scale. In this crammed and elongated third floor corridor of Shanghai Art Museum, all the laughing heads seem to indicate some form of upstaged social farce. Peak hour visitors in unison tend to jam with art display in the museum or window display on any urban street. We cannot avoid but to live in this very magnificent urban world we create for ourselves.
According to the artist Ye Minjun, we visually experience close-ups in clearer manner more so than seeing objects at distance. Especially around an urban context, variable dominating forces such as lifestyle, visual images and surrounding environment impact on or dominate us. We have no choice but live in our existing context. Comparatively, we scan and seek to settle our visual focal point if we are in the desert.
The artist also claims that our everyday visual experiences are changing our way of thinking. With sight, visual experience is present, ever expanding, ubiquitous and pervasive. The artist is referring to advertisements and TV images that are dominating our everyday lives. These are sources of our visual experiences. The choice, however, is personally switch off the TV dial. One can also choose not to perceive, remember or recall, i.e. oblivion and amnesia are time tested personal experiences. It is said that out of sight, out of mind.
Is it a matter of personal choice? On the other hand, is it a matter of personal awareness or personal existence?
Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 19, 2009
7th Shanghai Biennale 2008, Shanghai Art Museum
Sept. 08 – Nov. 16, 2008
For everything is striving to be larger than the Texas state of USA, besides CCTV Building and Forbidden City in Beijing, China's contemporary art subject - a dinosaur hybridized with the bald headed artist - also could not escape the over bloated ego trip in their respective overwhelming visual dominance. Most often, this similar art scene and art subjects are only decors more than meaningful art matters.
The technicolor forms conjure a delightful visual experience and imaginative infantile fantasy in a themed park. They have typical facial expressions: eyes-closed and toothy smiles, human heads and a few of them with serpentine necks now replacing the heads of all dinosaurs, almost up front at eye level, on the floor, close to ceiling height. These dinosaurs in various scales can be some playful interactive art experience in live size. It is also excessively easy to identify these three-dimensional pre-historic creatures transformed out of the Hollywood blockbuster movies.
Intended by the artist to expound on the meaning of urban experience via art experience, the selected extinct dinosaurs connote a visually overwhelming urban scale. In this crammed and elongated third floor corridor of Shanghai Art Museum, all the laughing heads seem to indicate some form of upstaged social farce. Peak hour visitors in unison tend to jam with art display in the museum or window display on any urban street. We cannot avoid but to live in this very magnificent urban world we create for ourselves.
According to the artist Ye Minjun, we visually experience close-ups in clearer manner more so than seeing objects at distance. Especially around an urban context, variable dominating forces such as lifestyle, visual images and surrounding environment impact on or dominate us. We have no choice but live in our existing context. Comparatively, we scan and seek to settle our visual focal point if we are in the desert.
The artist also claims that our everyday visual experiences are changing our way of thinking. With sight, visual experience is present, ever expanding, ubiquitous and pervasive. The artist is referring to advertisements and TV images that are dominating our everyday lives. These are sources of our visual experiences. The choice, however, is personally switch off the TV dial. One can also choose not to perceive, remember or recall, i.e. oblivion and amnesia are time tested personal experiences. It is said that out of sight, out of mind.
Is it a matter of personal choice? On the other hand, is it a matter of personal awareness or personal existence?
Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 19, 2009
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