frank gerlitzki:
I do it my way /artchannel gallery, beijing caoangdi

4 seasons: faces and symbols

Is there a relation between Chinese traditional and contemporary art?

A difference between actual Chinese and western art, beside just using different faces as a model?

I treated a very traditional Chinese subject: The four seasons; the circle of life seen from a western view...in my way.

Not able to read Chinese characters I created my own symbols:

1- an upgoing raindrop for spring: birth and growing up

2- a circle for summer: youth, studies, start of professional life.

3- a triangle for autumn: achievement.

4- a cross for winter: retirement, end of life(death)

These symbols are used in each part of the installation.

Scenes of childhood, youth and studies, professional and family life, retirement.

Using pictures of Asian as well as of European people I took in Europe as well as in Asia, the fact of hiding the surroundings , circumstances and situations of life, makes it hard to guess where the represented people are staying. It could be in both places: a normal effect of globalization. Instead of insisting of cultural differences, we could focus on what is commun.. Whether in contemporary art as in architecture and daily life, original big cultural differences disappear. Only the relations between the attachment to tradition and modern life subsists.

Architectural elements (skyscrapers are the symbols of modern China) built of a mix of Chinese and western characters grow up during the first seasons to scroll down at the end of the circle again. Buildings too have a circle of life.

A mix of faces, hanging down from the ceiling, floating through the room and mirrors occupy the left part. The reflexions of the hanging faces take the form of the four symbols again; the reflected faces of the visitors become part of the installation.

Both parts are held together by a traditional Chinese symbol: a dragon formed of Chinese and western faces.

Beijing, march 2008

(original Chinese paintings by Xiâo Fù (Xian)