27 Nov 2003 – 27 Feb 2004
He An is a young artist in terms of the Chinese contemporary art scene. He has not participated in many exhibitions either in China or abroad, neither has he had the opportunity to travel abroad to see other cultures for himself, yet the work he produces reveal a profound understanding of universal laws of the impact of mass culture. His enthusiasm is boundless and this voracious appetite for the modern world, be it music, fashion, art or just ideas, goes beyond simply being representative of China’s new generation of ‘youth’, alighting at its leading edge.
He An began producing computer-generated images in the style of popular advertising in 2000. These combine the ideals of western style with figures of a grim Chinese reality as beggars infiltrate the metropolises, combining the ‘cool’ exhorted in the slogans of western sports advertisements-like those produced for Nike, Adidas and Reebok- with figures of a grim Chinese reality. The juxtaposition of ‘cool’ slapped over the image of a figure with withered legs imparted a callous slant to the ‘Just Do It!’ hype, questioning attitudes towards physical perfection.
His next project was ‘Fifteen Reasons for Fashion’. Intrigued by the role of the internet in connecting people from all social spheres, and the anonymity it provides for expressing fantasies, He An placed a personal ad on a Chinese server calling for young people willing to be photographed as their interpretation of ‘cool’. The result was a startling series of images, mainly of teenage girls, whose burning desire was to appear scarred. The sexy sleaze that they associated with their fantasy was similar to morbid fascinations with injury projected in David Cronenburg’s ‘Crash’.
His most recent photographic work pushed the boundaries of computer-generated imagery. ‘Woman Raped by an Alien’ took months of trial and error to effect in the way He An envisioned. It represents the new technical and conceptual heights that the younger generation of Chinese artists is achieving.
He An’s first sculptural work was a billboard-sized sentence, cast in fibreglass, which read “I miss you, please contact me: 13701059553″. It was sited in a sculpture park in the south of China and prompted thousands of calls from runaways scared to call home and parents desperate to find their children- stories he recorded until the volume became overwhelming.
Creating physical forms was a challenging process, with issues to resolve only second in complexity to ‘Woman Raped by an Alien’. Apparently unafraid of such issues and determined only to succeed, in mid-2001, He An attempted to take another sculptural concept from the drawing board to 3-dimensions. It was an idea that had been hovering for many months, yet which had not defined itself clearly. Drawings were made and then the American Tragedy took place on September 11th which immediately put He An’s thoughts into perspective:
Before 9/11, the American people had no idea what it was to experience the real terror of terrorism on their own soil, but they believed that they knew all about it because they lived it vicariously through the skills of hundreds of special effects units in Hollywood who exploited it to the max. Hollywood set the standard for glamorous violence. Reality couldn’t compete: until 9/11.
We are all sucked in by Hollywood, even in China, to believing we know what it is like to experience the violence of terror, but we don’t we can’t… In China films like ‘The Matrix’, or ‘Swordfish’, appeared the ultimate in cool violence. The more you examine it, the more you realise that such violence is highly political and politicised. It represents and perpetuates the myths about all our cultures.
The resultant works, titled ‘The Matrix’, were pairs of fibreglass figures representing the most explosive moments of scenes from various Hollywood films and an ad from the 2000-01 Gucci campaign. They all contain features that either reflect or have established currently held ideals pertaining to beauty, ‘cool’, strength, power, and icon for our times.
Cast in fibreglass, to a pure, gleaming white surface like porcelain, the two figures reel and wait in moods between dazed and coil sprung. The tension is palpable, the ribboning out of forms mesmerising. In major cities all over China, the people are feeling the impact of the ideals and issues exposed by the advancing economy, the changing policies in media and adjustments in socio-political circumstances. Crime and violence are naturally on the increase as the gap between rich and poor grows. To the Chinese, America personifies much of the problems as well as the ideals. These ideals, and the figures He An employs to portray them, are far from the caricatures of violence invoked in comic strips. The characters represent a cooler violence, detached from the actor’s specific persona. Modern media promulgates the worship of violence. Exposure to Hollywood, for better or worse, has opened doors in China that were previously closed and young artists like He An, and they are passing through to discover what might lie beyond. With his ‘Matrix’, He An has produced one of the most striking works from the contemporary art scene in China. This demonstrates a firm step forward from an artist whose work is evolved out of a long period of thought and consideration.
He An’s Statement
In China today, it is impossible to avoid the discussion of globalisation. I am immersed in a society overcome by desires for fashion, ‘state-of-the-art’, riches and fame. Perhaps this is typical of general trends in the post-colonial age, it certainly seems a beautiful cultural environment, but it is one that easily gives rise to illusions, like mirages are visions of desires made manifest by yearning.
Recently I have found myself lost for an adequate means of commenting on the situation. From what I can understand from the media, from mistaken interpretations of the western world and the contradictions that confront me in reality, I find myself wholly confused. I want to find my own path, approach, and perspective. So here, a grasp of the outside world takes on significant meaning.
I have personally always seen Britain as being at the centre of European culture. This is directly related to ‘the energy and spirit of Punk’. The explosion of Punk in 1977 has had an impact upon Chinese youth culture that British people can hardly begin to imagine. For those of us who grew up in the post-Cultural Revolution era, we were naturally heirs to this kind of western cultural impact.
For young artists in Beijing, British artists like Damien Hirst, Mark Quinn, the Chapman Brothers, Douglas Gordon and Tracey Emin – who we understood and learned about from magazines, the media and exhibitions catalogues – made them a regular topic of discussion. They helped to open my eyes and my way of thinking. Even though much of what we saw was small images in magazines, this was already invaluable. It engendered in me a desire to understand the state of mind and creative practises of the younger newer young British artists, especially those who are driven by their own conviction in their work. For young Chinese like myself, who feel somewhat devoid of a ‘tradition’ to either identify with or react against, this was absolutely essential.
The goal of dialogue is to make progress. I am from that generation which was born and grew up after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and we are proactive and full of enthusiasm. It is my aim to arrive at a manner of expression that can reflect both myself as a young Chinese and the contemporary environment of China. For this reason, the opportunity provided by Breathe would offer me the chance to experience another culture, to understand how people think, act and respond. I am attempting to enter the residency without preconceived ideas and be open to what the exposure will certainly inspire.
