Mediating/Meditating the Metropolis
Wang Mingxian, Bird Nest, mixed media, 2008
(courtesy of Meridian International Center)
By Rebecca Park, Contributor
“METROPOLIS NOW! A Selection of Chinese Contemporary Art” is tucked away, high up on a hill in Northwest DC at the Meridian International Center. It’s not all that easy of a location, and the hours—Wednesday through Sunday, from 2 to 5—are not the most convenient. What more fitting metaphor, then, for a show that aspires to portray today’s China, that mysterious land of free(ish) markets and restricted human rights, the rising power player that everyone is talking about but so few actually understand?
The collection of 52 works by 31 artists on display at the Center’s White-Meyer House aims for something far grander than a simple exercise in exhibiting contemporary works. As Meridian President Stuart Holliday remarked in a press release, the show means no less than to present “the artist as envoy—in essence, a cultural diplomat.” What we’re looking at is not just recent international art trends, but a country itself and how its people look at it.
Liu Ren, Sleepwalker-Temple of Heaven, C-print, 2008
(courtesy of Meridian International Center)
So what image of China can we glean here? There’s fantastic, mythical China (Liu Ren’s airy and almost-ridiculous Sleepwalker-Temple of Heaven), the China of much work and little play (Chen Zhiguang’s overwhelmingly steel sculpture Ants), capitalist and consumerist China (Chen Wenbo’s object-obsessed Sunglasses). But the overriding theme, uniting the disparate media and messages sprinkled throughout the gallery, is that of a traditional society negotiating the excitement and excesses of urban life. A nation speeding unabashedly toward the future, while slowly coming to terms with its past.
Wang Mingxian’s hybrid landscapes strongly support this movement. In a work like Bird’s Nest (2008) he subtly imposes looming modern buildings on classically-styled ink drawings. The viewer takes a relaxed moment to easily comprehend the uncomplicated mountain scene, the accepted idea of Chinese art, the meditative ink with the implied images of silent monks studiously painting. Then there’s the initial shock of noticing a stylized contemporary structure sneaking up on the scene. Yet eventually one comes to terms with this incongruence, because, really, what else is there? How else do you capture a nation that’s equal parts ancient, respected civilization and modern, feared global power?
Chen Zhiguang, Ants, stainless steel, 2008
(courtesy of Meridian International Center)
But the strongest impression the viewer leaves with is one of artistic range. Of media, of styles, of ideas. A nation as vastly diverse as it is populated. Sure, the show is at times overwhelming—the rubric “contemporary Chinese art” is broad, and includes art-school snark alongside more classical composure. But that’s perhaps the most potent diplomatic message the exhibit can communicate. The inability to summarize, organize, mentally process the works on display into one neat definition of a country’s contemporary art translates into a vivid portrait of a China far messier and more complex than stereotypes or news bites would make it out to be.
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