Contemporary Life and Art Strategy
Feng Zhengjie

Modern life is enchanting like a cheap colorful glass ball, which gleams and reflects various scenes around our life. People living in the kaleidoscope really enjoy the atmosphere and their role of material oriented men and women. It has become the typical bourgeois culture and taste value.  During recent years, a lot of world gardens, palaces of Chinese nationalities, fake antiques and wedding photography studios emerged throughout everywhere. Their brazenly affectations and counterfeits were to cater the consumptive psychological status of the masses.

Artists in the mid-90s is facing a different social and cultural background than those in the early 90s. One hand the political complexion triggered by political disturbances has been diminished due to the transform of national economic policies. On the other hand, with the economic development, people begin to be indulged in the material production and consumptions. People are, to some extent, changing from political characters to economic characters. As for the artists, however, people’s real status of existence, the spiritual integrity and esteem are always what the artists concern most. Right on this point, the cynical realism, due to its intensive concern to people’s existence status, replaced the grand but unconformable art pursuits after 1985. In fact, to amuse, deride or scoff the society was the inevitable way for political characters to pursue their selfhood independence. Criticism without specific situations often misses its main point. The Chinese contemporary art will certainly going forward, and the cynical realism is no more compatible to the current social and cultural background( it has almost finished in 1994, quoted with Li Xianting). To criticize is not a solution to the problems and to advance the development of Chinese contemporary art, we have to face the current reality and adopt effective art styles. It should be the basic attitude for artists to ponder the contemporary art issues with the universal background of material orientations.

I do not agree with simple counterreactional tendency in the art creation and critique. Some elements of the previously existed art might have made no sense with the transform of social and cultural background, while we have to admit that there are always pippins left to contribute to the followers. Therefore, we need to face the reality, develop the useful and discard the obsolete. On this aspect, I agree with Zhang Xiao Gang’s art attitude very much. With the extension of such attitude, we can see the fruit and value as well as minus of the previous arts and push forward the con.

Gaudy art is one kind of art strategy and language style. Gaudy is only the superficial element rather than the essence of the gaudy art whose essence is irony with the means of imitation. Irony with the feather of penetration and inspiration was strengthened by the superficial presentation of the gaudy art Therefore gaudy art should not be regarded as a unilateral emotional criticism to the moral objects, but as an necessary manner of art introspection in the situation of contemporary society and culture.

The current life of the masses shows diversities based on the imitations of fashion consumptions. During this process, the taste and value of the masses appears foppish and peacockish. The gaudy art is not only the sheer imitation of the reality but the imitation of the imitation itself which also shows the personal feelings and basic attitude of the artist himself. Imitation of such kind transforms life into art with the essence of irony which expresses the artist’s wish to pursue self independence and self esteem.

From 1994 to the early 1996, I created my series of “Recounting of skins” based on my sensitivity to the wide spread of epicurean trend in the mass consumption of the materialized society. In 1994, I made my solo exhibition of “Recounting of Skin” in Beijing. My art works took the skins, the media of internal world to the external, as the cut-in point and the pathological changes of the skins was presented as a metaphor to the psychological alterations and spiritual erosions. The flamboyant colors were used to reflect the cankers in order to realize the art criticism to the society.

The series of “Romantic Trip” made in 1996 is the development and deepening of the “Recounting of Skin”. My art works continued the mass consumption culture and taste value. The popular wedding photography and world park were taken as the cut-in point with the amorous and fragile balloons as the inserted element. The wedding photography was designed by the photographer with the same patterns and poses as well as similar conceptual facial expressions. The superficial effects rather than the outpouring of real emotions have become the rules. “ Romantic Trip” gathered all the fake constructions of the world renowned places of interests and combined with the visual effect of new year pictures as an irony to the current society with the hope of pursuing the real value and esteem of the human beings.

In my art works, I would like to bring the existed images into my creations as a way to convey my art conception with the transform and combinations of the casual images. In fact, I can never bring into all the images, therefore in the process of image selection, transaction and combination has been deeply marked with the feature and judgment of myself. I do not care if I am presented in my art works, on the contrary, when people are enjoying the brilliant images in my art works, I was enjoying their reactions and performance behind them！

Beijing, December 1996