The New Dominion

I will begin this review with the following qualification: I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like. That said, I have seen art in Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, and other, more obscure locales, as well as Ürümchi, and I have never been especially impressed. The same themes appear endlessly, presented through the lens of some borrowing from an art form done to death decades before in some far-off country. It doesn’t help that contemporary art in Xinjiang seems to feel this need to remind you you’re in Xinjiang — rolling plains and grape-wielding wenches abound.

Nayonggang - Untitled (无题)

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I stopped by the Xinjiang Museum on Beijing Bei Lu in Ürümchi on the first day of “融” róng, a new exhibition of paintings and sculptures by twenty-eight current Xinjiang artists at the Xinjiang Museum’s newly-opened Artist Base (艺术家基地), a free exhibition space funded and maintained by the Xinjiang Culture Office. The exhibition was put together by Zhuoya (卓娅), one of the more interesting artists showing her work, as a way to bring more recognition to local artists with unique ideas and styles. The exhibition is meant as an open rejection of the reproduction of particular styles in a formal way (as well as of “false uniqueness”) and of the competition and meritocracy that has grown up around art. Indeed, many of the artists are either untrained or incompletely formally trained or come from the edges of society; they include several self-employed individuals, one nomad, and many artists who, despite years of production, have never before shown their work. Those with the shortest résumés had the most interesting pieces. Interestingly, I was told at the exhibition that the Head of the Culture Office is especially forward-thinking and interesting in promoting unique and edgy artwork. Perhaps we will see more of this in the near future?

Zhuoya - Seasons of Love (爱之季节)

Although the original theme (and title) of the show is “fusion”, specifically that of the “crossroads” that is Xinjiang, I think “icons” would fall rather closer to the mark. All of the really interesting artists (most of whom happen to be Mongols) focus, in some way, on almost deific representations of humans or animals. Take, for example, the overtly feminine spirits of Zhuoya’s own work, women who peer, content, from their rightful place in the pantheon. In a region where any artistic depictions of women are necessarily constrained by the inevitable “ethnic dress”, I was happy to see that even the “Mongol goddess” was transcendent. And what are we to make of the two young women we see through a keyhole-like portrait, whispering to each other’s confidence? You can see, at right, one of a series of “Seasons of Love” (爱之季节) – I wonder what the other three are like? (The photo, by the way, does not do it justice.)

One of Mengkebayier’s (孟克巴依尔) paintings, “Red’s Melody” (红色的旋律), seems to be in harmony with Zhuoya’s work. It depicts, to my mind, a standard restaurant-wall scene of a mäshräp, but one infused with the spirit, not of national history and long-dead poets, but of a young woman unthinkingly lighting the men around her on fire, transforming them with her dance. As she twirls, carelessly open-mouthed, and as the men around her are twisted and blinded, a single young woman falls gently through her spirit trail.

Zhu Dong - Delicious (美味)

I was momentarily turned off by the work of Zhu Dong (朱东) until I saw it for what it was. The artist has painted himself into “Delicious” (美味), a triptych of Uyghur stereotypes, each sitting on a sack of thorns. I cannot help but read it as social commentary.

Caiwugejiafu (才吾格加甫) produced some interesting bronze reworkings of classic Mongol images – the head of a warrior, a running horse. Particularly eye-catching was a horse on lame, unbending pencil legs.

The work of Zhang Pengfei (张鹏飞), a Xinjiang artist currently resident in Guangzhou, was very eye-catching. His folk-arty animal sculptures (”Cow Head” (牛头)) are playful and fun, which makes a wonderful contrast to the stultifying formality and seriousness of even experimental art.

Zhang Pengfei - Cow Head (牛头)

Nayonggang’s (那永刚) “Untitled” (pictured at top) forms the centerpiece of the show. This sculpture of a caged and angry head, carved from a single piece of wood and a carefully-honed collection of rough branches, seems to depict an individual struggling against self-imposed constraints. It sits on a pedestal that would otherwise be unobtrusive, daring you to look at it. This was the focus on discussion among attendees.

Although the show intrigued me more than any art exhibition I have seen in China in some time, this is not to say that it is without its weak points. The inclusion of twenty-eight artists in a small exhibition space means that no one has much room to show off their range, nor are most of the works presented especially impressive. The majority consist of the usual sweeping pastoral scenes, done in a blandly realist style, that dominate Xinjiang art. There are some forays into cubism, pop art, and hyperrealism, as well as some experimental work with calligraphy, but none of it seems especially unique. (I should give a nod, at least, to Dong Jian’s (董建) impression of an angry Georgia O’Keeffe.) I do believe that this may have been a result of the over-inclusive scope of the show, which, by limiting display space, forced artists to present not their best work, but their most “representative”. This crowdedness is a common problem, it seems, at art exhibitions in China. There were paintings on display by Dabuxilite, for example, whose earlier exhibition we reviewed here back in March. However, none of the paintings most favored as his (quite successful) previous exhibition were shown at Artist Base.

The majority of contemporary Chinese art, as I see it, still looks more like illustration than art, something you would see in a book or an advertisement. It is often blatant. I am attracted to the more iconic images at this exhibition because they seem transcendent, as though they are not just depictions of a standardized form, but representations of eternal forms in a different kind of group psychology, a different vision of an understandable and fluid world. To paraphrase some of the artists presenting their work, this sort of art is more a process of discovery than of depiction, a slow journey through one’s own unique world, incidentally making it communicable. I like that.

(All photographs of paintings were originally published in the freely-available exhibition program. They are used with permission. They are also scanned very poorly.)