The China Project

133 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection WEI Dong In Wei Dong’s Snapshot 1999, two provocative figures form the focal point in what appears to be a traditional Chinese landscape painting with a bleak panoramic background, barren and unpopulated. The adroitly executed figures, rich in luminous colour and texture, languish in a state of undress. Chillies, biscuits, tea, postage stamps and a high-heeled shoe with nails stuck in its heel are scattered about the pair. One figure is asleep, while the other gleefully counts a wad of money. The use of these eclectic objects is typical of Wei Dong’s practice: ‘. . . they cry out with their [ambiguous] symbolic meanings and clothe the human figures in a thick coat of absurdity — what does it mean to be human?’ 1 These characters might be considered trespassers in a once-sacred realm, their presence a shameful pollutant that disrespects both history and tradition. The use of symbols in historical Chinese painting denotes meaning and value to a particular subject — for instance, bamboo is a symbol of old age and modesty, and the peony an emblem of wealth and distinction. In Wei Dong’s paintings, the symbols he employs are contemporary, referencing China’s recent past of modern warfare and commercial development. In Snapshot , the meaning of the biscuits beneath the head of the sleeping figure and the chillies casually laid on the ground is open to interpretation, which goes against the traditional use of symbols in Chinese painting. Wei Dong dexterously fuses Western painting techniques with the format and style of traditional Chinese landscape painting from both the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. Heavily influenced by the dramatic changes in Chinese society since the Cultural Revolution, Wei Dong’s painted characters satirically communicate a hedonistic revelry in lust, power and economic gain. China’s determination to enter the global market has produced a rapidly growing consumer population, eager to believe in the possibility of democracy — a phenomenon that Wei Dong addresses in his work. Wei Dong can be seen as a contemporary jokester and tragedian; his characters are free of social restraint, the moral codes of human behaviour discarded in pursuit of wealth and self-fulfilment. The viewer becomes a voyeur, drawn to the daring lack of decorum in the figures’ suggestively gaping unbuttoned garments. In this work, Wei Dong evokes a mood of comic despair, and wistfulness for the principled life of the past — the traditional landscape surrounding the figures contrasts a code of piety with the whims of fancy. endnote 1 Don Cohn, ‘Wei Dong: The Invasion of the Past,’ in Wei Dong: Ancient Stage, Modern Players [exhibition catalogue], Plum Blossoms (International) Ltd, Hong Kong and Singapore, 1995, unpaginated. Snapshot (detail, and full image) 1999 Ink and pigment on paper / 32.5 x 131.5cm / Purchased 2004. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant