Arty Farty...

Recently, I took a fancy to walking past and into a art gallery in Raffles City whenever I'm there. The thing that struck me were the Red Boys. They are the sculptures created by sculptor Chen Wenliang.

Something about Chen Wenliang:-

Born in Anxi, Fujian China 1969. Graduated from Xiamen academy of Art and completed study in Sculpture Dept, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing China.

Exhibitions include:

• 2005 "grounding reality" Chinese Contemporary art exhibition, Seoul Korea
• 2005 Second China Art Triennial, Nanjing
• 2004 10th National Art exhibition, Changchun
• 2005 China-Belgium Contemporary Sculptuare Exhibition, Antwerpen, Belgium
• 2003 Chinese sculpture masterpiece exhibition of the Beijing International Biennale
• 2002 China Art Triennial, Guangzhou art Museum, Guangdong
• 2001 Sculpture Show, Shanghai Young Artists’ exhibition

About

Chen Wenling is a famous young sculptor working in China. His works the RED BOYS is a series of boys portrayed in scarlet.

Red is the colour in fashion . From the Red Devil Cheer Team in South korea to the unusal red uniforms of the European football teams and to the various red symbols in China.

Throughout Chinese history, red has been a symbolic and auspicious colour . Chen wants to express the tension of money, power , anxiety, fear and cruelty in the adult world. In this RED BOYS series, he wants to express the dream and the wish deep down in every human – the rememberance and the nostalgia of our innocent childhood and a questioning of our adult human culture.

The Red Boys are innocent and not evil, healthy and not sick. It is well known that the visual arts of the late twentieth century, whether in art, movie and three-dimension cartoon pictures of computer games are full of violence and self doubt and pity. Chen’s Red Boy look like a lotus growing out of mud, satisfying viewers cravings for a new trend of avant garde art, ie. to make a vehicle of the construction of human nature rather than the weapon of criticism of human nature.

His works attracted outsiders, insiders, academics and avant-garde critics alike to appreciate them from their own perspectives.

Chen series works of the Red Boys entitled the Red Memory, which have various meanings for different modern art viewers. They may be reminded of a newly born baby (red boy) which symbolizes the innocence of human heart in classical culture, without a feeling of ordinariness. They may relate the works to the Red Boy of one of the Chinese great novels the JOURNEY to the West, (XI YOU JI) without a feeling of an evil spirit. They may be reminded of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, without a feeling of cruelty. They may be reminded of the war fires in the past in this strategically important China, without any feelings of fear. Those who know Chen may link the Red boys with one of his unusual experience.IN 1996, there was an astonishing report on the newspaper of the Xiamen daily , entitled “RARE AND COURAGEOUS SELF DEFENSE” . It was report that a couple were robbed at the beach. The man courageously defended himself and the woman and was stabbed dozen of times. Two main arteries of his body wrists were cut open, His body was soaked with blood. It was the bloodiest case in the local criminal history. The article described the heroic action of the young man in detail and the hero was no other than Mr Chen wenling, who luckily survived the attack. Despite of this, Chen shows no trace of hatred in his Red Memory.

Modern art emphasizes the concepts in a work. It often creates a style of too many concepts, making viewers tired. In contrast, Chen works is simple and true. He does not deliberately create concepts. The naked bodies have nothing to hide. What is left, is a direct communication with the nature and a conversation between the society and the people. The facial and body expressions of the Red Boys are properly exaggerated to enhance the communicative effects. This series of works is a relief of too many concepts. It can also be viewed that there is a concept in the works to curtail the burden of concepts.

PENG DE

A famous Chinese art critic

Professor of Xian academy of Art

Published on ART & DESIGN, Volume 118,2003

Pigs.............

These 2 sculptures of pigs and plump humans are also on display at the art gallery. The piggies are soo adorable and they bought a smile to my face when I spotted them. No No, I'm not a piggy.. I'm a tigeress.... And I roarrr...

Well, don't you agree that they are sweet??

So, when you are down at Raffles City, why not take 10 mins to admire the works of the painters and sculptors?

Catch them all and more at Ode to Art, Raffles City Shopping Centre #01-36E/F, Singapore.

And nope, I'm not getting any commission out of this... Hahahaa..