| Even Better Than The Real Thing |
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| Culture | |
| Wednesday, 09 May 2007 | |
 In the year before it becomes European Capital of Culture 2008, it is appropriate that Liverpool should host this impressive exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, the largest seen outside China. Focusing on work produced since 2000, the co-curators of ‘The Real Thing’, Beijing-based critic and writer Karen Smith, and the young Shanghai-based artist Xu Zhen, commissioned projects by China’s leading young artists, and brought in existing works which have not so far been shown outside China. After consultation with Chinese experts, proposals were invited from artists considered the most creative, rather than the most commercial, freeing them to produce work of different genres and avoid accusations that the show would be just another western view of Chinese art. For those of us fortunate enough in recent years to see the dazzling variety of ancient Chinese art brought to the West, ‘The Real Thing’, comprising works created since 2000 by 18 artists, showcases the developing forms of contemporary art, combining installations, filmed performance, and still and video photography. The title, ‘The Real Thing’, can be read straight, indicating that the exhibition is a true reflection of contemporary art in China today: the artists, largely based around Shanghai and Beijing, were born and have remained in China. Echoing the ‘Coca-Cola’ slogan is also ironic because the ‘real’ China is elusive, and comprises many individual voices at a time of rapid and profound cultural change.  Outside the Tate Liverpool, apparently floating in the dock is the striking Fountain of Light by Ai Weiwei. Arguably the most important cultural figure in China, Ai contributed to the design of the Beijing Olympic Stadium. Three artists known as the Yangjiang group (Zheng Guogu, Chen Zaiyan and Sun Qinglin) created a £20,000 opening firework display, filling the sky with calligraphy. The first interior exhibit, a huge installation called Factory Floor by Zhuang Hui, recreates with astonishing realism the inside of ‘The East is Red Tractor Factory’ where the artist worked. The scene is the immediate aftermath of accident, the space deserted of all but the silently witnessing machinery and the abandoned bowls of noodles. A startlingly elaborate project providing eloquent messages about ambition, evidence and display is provided by Xu Zhen, in his piece entitled 8848-1.86. A huge glass cube containing the refrigerated peak of Mount Everest is exhibited alongside expedition gear including two erected tents, together with a projected a video of climbers wielding a chain-saw in a blizzard. Yang Shaobin provides the only example of an oil-painted exhibit with his 800 Metres in which pastiches of Socialist-Realism posters depicting smiling miners are juxtaposed with pictures of grim underground conditions. The external environment is the focus of Yang Fudong’s bleak multi-screen portrait East of Que Village, detailing a village in Hebei Province in winter. Li Yongbin invokes childhood fear in his minimalist installation Face V, where a shadowy face glimpsed through opaque glass approaches and peers into the darkened room inhabited by the viewer. By contrast, Cao Fei creates a graceful vision of imagined dreams of assembly line workers in her lyrical film: Whose Utopia? What are you doing here? Filmed performances such as the reactions of people locked into an art gallery in Gate by Wang Peng, or the simple domestic scenario of Our Sky is Falling, by Wang Gonxin reflect anxiety in the midst of change. These few examples among many demonstrate the continuing excellence of Chinese art in the modern world, as well as providing a fascinating insight into how these artists experience their environment. I would recommend anyone interested in art and in China to pay an early visit. http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/contemporaryartfromchina/ Sheila Cornelius |
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