Photo by: DU.edu
A towering, shiny red sculpture of a man carrying a humongous pig by Chen Wenling now greets students when they enter Penrose Library.
This sculpture, titled Happy Life #8, is currently on display in conjunction with the “Transforming Traditions: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection” exhibit at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery in Shwayder Art Building (SAB).
All pieces by the nine Chinese artists are located in the gallery and on display through April 26, except Wenling’s piece in Penrose and two sculptures in SAB which are on display through April 12.
Nine Chinese artists are represented in this exhibition, the latest in a series of student-organized shows from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, contemporary art collectors from Vail, Colo.
The exhibit explores the meshing of traditional Chinese art practices with westernization. The artists examine innovative strategies and explore the social, spiritual and philosophical concerns that arise out of the country’s history of cyclical repression and relative freedom.
Happy Life #8, the sculpture exhibited in Penrose, is made of fiberglass and automotive paint and stands almost 8 feet high.
Chen is known for using materials that trick the eye into believing it is something else. Happy Life #8 is part of series Wenling created to explore the relationship between humans and animals, a contemporary issue in China considering the rise in development of their meat market.
Outside the Myhren Gallery, in SAB, two additional larger-than-life figure sculptures are displayed. They are Miss L and Mr. W by Yu Fan from Qinqdao, who was an artist in residence at the School of Art and Art History from Feb. 25 to March 5.
Miss L wears only a pink cap, sweater and socks and represents the sexually precocious young girl in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, “Lolita.”
Mr. W dons a white turtleneck, socks and blue jacket. The sculpture references Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” an account of young unrequited love. Both works are made of fiberglass.
Inside the gallery, Sui Jianguo’s 2 Legacy Mantles, made of resin and acrylic, memorialize the drab jackets that Mao Zedong ordered everyone to wear to promote uniformity and equality.
“Here, the jackets are represented as empty vessels, symbolizing the Great Leader’s empty promises to the people; they also act as a metaphor for the limitations and restrictions placed on Mao’s Chinese citizens,” wrote Anna Anglim about the work. Anglim, along with other students, helped to organize the exhibition.
Sculptor Jianguo has done multiple versions of these jackets in bright colors alluding to Western pop art and Chinese modernism.
The gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m. daily and admission is free.
For more information on the exhibit and upcoming shows, visit www.du.edu/art/myhrengallery.htm.
A fully illustrated catalog of “Transforming Traditions” will be published with essays from students in director of the Myhren Gallery, Dan Jacobs’, graduate seminar “Thinking and Writing for Exhibitions.”
