CANVAS GUIDE

THE SCENE

East Meets East

September saw the opening of 'Middle East, Middle Kingdom' at Dubai's Etemad Gallery featuring 20 works by eight Contemporary Chinese artists showing for the first time in the UAE.

As the doors of Etemad Gallery opened to the exhibition Middle East, Middle Kingdom on 19 September, the show's curator Pia Camilla Copper was apprehensive about audience reaction. This was an exhibition which intended to introduce a new genre to the UAE's burgeoning art scene. "Having seen everything pertaining to Arab and Iranian art in Dubai, I badly wanted to bring Contemporary Chinese artists to the circuit," explains Copper. "I hope the public finds it as appealing as I do."

The Dubai and Paris-based Canadian curator's infatuation with China stems from her childhood, as her father was a geologist whose work centred primarily on the country's land formation. "I moved there when I was eight years-old and have been fascinated by it ever since," she says. "So I decided to specialise in Chinese art."

Etemad Gallery Directors Aly Afshar and Amir Hossein Etemad gave the go-ahead for the show, running until 12 November, in late June 2011, and so, Copper had a mere three months to amass an impressive selection of works by the likes of Qiu Jie, the Gao Brothers, Hung Tung Lu, Han Bing, Chen Hangfeng, Liu Dao and Wang Ziwei. "These artists are dear friends of mine," smiles the curator. "I chose them because their works combine a real medley of techniques and that is the intention of the show."

Featuring an array of media ranging from charcoal drawings, to paintings, photographs, paper-cuts and LEDs, Middle East, Middle Kingdom showcases works by existing Chinese artists to the Dubai audience all the while meeting the ambitious challenge of portraying a country at the crossroads of modernity and ancient tradition. It is this particular dichotomy which served as the catalyst for Copper's curatorial approach. "These artists attempt to envision China in the modern age, and by doing so, depict the clash between its history and today," she explains.

Topics of past versus present are especially evident in the Gao Brothers' large-scale diptych work located near the entrance of the gallery and entitled Double Portrait - Bin Laden. Comprising a magnified coloured photograph of the late Osama Bin Laden as a smiling toddler placed adjacent to an equally large and recent, black-and-white photograph of the Al-Qaeda founder extracted from TV footage, the monumental piece is daunting, to say the least. "The Gao Brothers' works are very political," says Copper. "But I think that artists in China have always been that way given the communist government. The climate of censorship has made these types of artists more prolific." Their other photographs on show from the Forever Unfinished Building series depict construction sites divided into different floors with crowds of people lurking from every angle. A closer look reveals that these miniature silhouettes are those of famous personalities including Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Pol Pot and Magic Johnson. Through this series, the artists share their dismay over the rapid economic change undergone in their homeland in recent years. "The Gao Brothers have been pressured by their government because of their strong political views, yet they are not afraid," adds the curator. "They are critics of the society we live in."

Opposite the Gao Brothers' works hang two charcoal drawings by Shanghai-born artist Qiu Jie. The large-scale works are composed of small poster-size papers pasted together, a technique that Jie began adopting as a student at Geneva's Ecole des Beaux Art years ago. "Back then, I wanted to create large-scale conceptual works but didn't have the means or adequate space to do so," admits the artist. "So I began visualising an entire composition in my head, and would draw it on small papers before collating everything together." Two Swallows is a particularly striking piece, presenting a bricolage of landscapes ranging from a tranquil sea, to faraway mountains, traditional Chinese pagodas and open courtyards. The most inviting image of all is set in the work's forefront which presents a ship dotted by red and white blossoms and being sailed by two smiling women in traditional Maoist uniforms. While the prow of the ship isn't depicted, the vessel, which intrudes into the work's foreground, is seemingly forging ahead, in a bid by the artist to offer a tinge of hope for the country's future. "I don't believe in art as a tool for change, but I think you can pose certain questions," explains Jie. "I am not a philosopher but my works contain narratives that chronicle my life and themes of the past, present and future." Following renowned Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei's arrest in April 2011 by Beijing police as a result of alleged economic crimes (in reality many suspect that it was his candid criticism of the Chinese government which led to his detention), the country's artist community remain wary of merging political criticism and art. "You have to make sure not to cross certain boundaries," admits Jie. "You have to know how to play the game."

Han Bing's staged photographs from the New Culture Movement series also associate with hope, revealing families, children and labourers holding a red brick in the backdrop of construction sites, schools and unfinished homes. As describes Copper, the brick, "embodies their dreams of being able to assemble a complete house and eventually attain a modest prosperity."

Building on all aspects of present-day China, issues of religious factions also weave in and out of Taiwanese artist Hung Tung Lu's holographic works on show. Entitled Svara and Padmasambhava, the pieces reveal Daoist and Buddhist goddesses floating in bubbles and hovering above a sea of lotuses. The holographic light effect in Lu's oeuvre draws the viewer in with its optical illusion and image manipulation. "Lu's works are so cutting-edge. I chose them as they offer a completely different take on the theme of goddesses through these Manga-like depictions," says Copper.

In keeping with the overriding theme of the exhibition, Shanghai-born artist Wang Ziwei's political pop manifestos are also bounded in China's history, illustrating cartoon-inspired paintings of women dreaming of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. Also on show are digital artworks inspired by China's ever-changing landscape by Liu Dao, an arts collective comprising international artists, and emerging Shanghai artist Cheng Hangfeng's paper cuts featuring emblems of the modern world replete with luxury brands and fast-food logos.

Despite the political and societal concerns brewing in China's Contemporary art scene, Copper hopes viewers are able to look beyond territorial borders and relate to the universality of the matters addressed in Middle East, Middle Kingdom. "I see a lot of similarities between China and the UAE, as people there are struggling to define their identity in this new lifestyle completely different from the country's past," says the curator. "But I also want viewers to see the show and discover something new. After all, it is a modest glimpse into something that is so much more."

By Tala Chukri

Middle East, Middle Kingdom runs from 19 September-12 November at Etemad Gallery. For more information visit www.galleryetemad.com

• share
• print
• send to a friend