"Seriously Chosen" (慎重选择)
// BLURB //
We like being entertained because that’s the only time we can switch our brains off while still living. Living without brain is better and easier, everybody knows that. The downside of this is everything that supports us to be meaninglessly happy is considered low culture. Manga is a great example. Even though it has about 200 years of history since Katsushika Hokusai established the style and it started to interlace Japanese visual culture, its lack of critical content seems to prevent it from breaking into the art world. Similar to Western cartoons, the appealing style and virtuoso artisanship of manga calls for conceptual content. On the West, it was Roy Lichtenstein who used comic book style as the ironic representation of modern consumer culture, on the East it was Takashi Murakami. He said not only does manga’s two-dimensional nature connect it to traditional Japanese painting, but it also expresses the shallowness of contemporary life. There you go, this is how you can fill a neutral artistic phenomenon with ideologies and heady theories. The only question now is whether it's the death or the triumph of sensationalism if we start to take it seriously.
We like being entertained because that’s the only time we can switch our brains off while still living. Living without brain is better and easier, everybody knows that. The downside of this is everything that supports us to be meaninglessly happy is considered low culture. Manga is a great example. Even though it has about 200 years of history since Katsushika Hokusai established the style and it started to interlace Japanese visual culture, its lack of critical content seems to prevent it from breaking into the art world. Similar to Western cartoons, the appealing style and virtuoso artisanship of manga calls for conceptual content. On the West, it was Roy Lichtenstein who used comic book style as the ironic representation of modern consumer culture, on the East it was Takashi Murakami. He said not only does manga’s two-dimensional nature connect it to traditional Japanese painting, but it also expresses the shallowness of contemporary life. There you go, this is how you can fill a neutral artistic phenomenon with ideologies and heady theories. The only question now is whether it's the death or the triumph of sensationalism if we start to take it seriously.
STATUS
SOLD. Private Collection, London.
SOLD. Private Collection, London.
EDITION, MEDIA, SIZE & WEIGHT
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2018
Gongbi painting (工笔) on rice paper, teakwood frame
106(W)×76(H)×2.5(D) cm // 9.1 kg (framed)
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
119(W)×89(H)×12(D) cm // 24 kg
EXPOSURE
“Fathers Of My Father” at island6 Main Space
CREDITS
Wang Tie Zhong 王铁中 (Gongbi) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Irmantas Bortnikas (documentation) • Carlin Reinig (blurb)
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2018
Gongbi painting (工笔) on rice paper, teakwood frame
106(W)×76(H)×2.5(D) cm // 9.1 kg (framed)
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
119(W)×89(H)×12(D) cm // 24 kg
EXPOSURE
“Fathers Of My Father” at island6 Main Space
CREDITS
Wang Tie Zhong 王铁中 (Gongbi) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Irmantas Bortnikas (documentation) • Carlin Reinig (blurb)
CLOSE-UP VIDEO