128
Arts & Culture
Yangjiang Group - Yan Lei
battlefi eld “If I knew the dan- ger ahead,
I’d have stayed
well clear.” Taking Chinese callig-
raphy as their starting point, the Yangjiang Group produce photographs, videos and in- stallations that include ironic comments on the way Chi- nese traditions are becoming commoditised
and repack-
aged as mere entertainment. “Chinese calligraphy
is very powerful and visu- ally very attractive, like fi reworks,” says the group’s leader Zheng. “In the same way, both don’t convey a di- rect meaning. They are more abstract.” The trio decided to in-
clude new art forms in their portfolio along with
tional Chinese calligraphy be- cause calligraphy does not al- low “going out of the box,” he
Ken Kitano tradi-
says. “It is diffi cult to combine calligraphy with modern art.”
Gaming inspiration However, Group
still
the Yangjiang connects with
some traditions of the ancient Chinese calligraphy masters. Like the revered Zhang Shui or Huai Su of the Tang Dy- nasty, the members of the group like to create under the infl uence of alcohol. “Our art is very conceptual. Like fi re- works,” says one. Hailing from Yangjiang in Guangdong prov-
city
ince, all the group’s mem- bers know Macau well. They have even been inspired by the main driver of Macau’s economy. “We did a lot of work on
gambling previously. Espe- cially on online gambling,” said Zheng. “Those were our
Thomas Heatherwick Chen Zaiyan, Zheng Guogu and Sun Qinglin
most exciting pieces.” The group liken their
collaborative work to garden- ing. “If we work together as a collective unity, it is like we are planting a seed. We all water the plant together for it to become a fl ower of har- mony,” he said.
Colour explosion Works by Yan and the Yangjiang Group compete for attention in the exhibi- tion with other contemporary art heavyweights, including some from the West. Since the late 1980s, Brit-
on Damien Hirst has produced some of contemporary art’s most memorable and conten- tious works. His work derives from the existential dilemma of the human condition and is a sustained investigation of the theme of mortality. He is
the creator of “For the Love of God”, a piece consisting of a human skull recreated in plat- inum and adorned with 8,601 diamonds. At the exhibition, Hirst represented by “Beauti-
is
ful Soft Exploding Rainbow Painting”,
a spin painting
suggesting the dramatic ex- pansion and death of an ex- ploding fi rework rocket, and “Beautiful Ergonomic Paint- ing”.
In a more abstract way,
the seed head of the dandeli- on fl ower is nature’s fi rework. British designer Thomas Heatherwick has employed the structure of dandelion fl owers in a number of his works. The most recent, the “Seed Cathedral” building, chosen to serve as the Brit- ish pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, is a 20-metre high structure wands,
sporting arranged
each of which allows light to fi lter along its length and into the interior. A model of the project is on display at the exhibition. One of the most impres-
sive works is David Spriggs’ “Event”. The Canadian artist airbrushes his images onto multiple sheets of clear acryl- ic fi lm that are then hung one behind another creating a three-dimensional effect. Are you ready for the
fi reworks? OCTOBER 2010
60,000 radially,
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