|
Home>News Center>Life | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
China sculptor straddles rejection with women panty
While browsing through a second-hand bookstore in Sydney 13 years ago, Wang Zhiyuan came across old books of Chinese erotica by obscure artists from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The discovery proved to be an artistic inspiration for Wang. "At that time, my state of mind really appreciated low-brow sex art," he said. "Low-brow art depicts people's basic instincts." Wang, 48, has over the last five years made a living from wood and glass sculptures of pink women's panties with animated scenes chiseled into the crotch areas. He has sold 50 of his 86 sculptures for $1,500 to $7,600 apiece, price depending on location and his relationship with the buyer. Although China has not opened up to public displays of sexually suggestive art, Wang hangs the larger-then-life-sized panties from the walls of his 256 square-meter studio in a Beijing suburb with hopes of selling them. One pair shows a woman receiving diamonds from a man who looks like a demon. Another pair advocates "Make love, not war" and shows two figurines having sex. A third says "Prevent AIDS." He is sketching plans for another that will feature an AK-47 inside a condom under a rainstorm representing sperm. Wang said he has pursued the panty motif to distinguish himself from other Western artists and from Chinese artists who ape Western styles. And after using naked women models during his studies at the Central Fine Arts Academy from 1980-1984 and a three-year phase of painting women in skimpy traditional Chinese garments, he decided on sex as a long-term theme. "I should always do what fits my cultural background and something I can get along with," Wang said. "Underwear," he opined, "you take those off at night. They are the most direct means of sexual fantasy." Qi Zhilong, Wang's academy classmate, said Wang always had a thing for erotic art. His original inspirations, which were active in college, include ancient Chinese paintings that depict nudity, he said. "The stuff he has done since early on has had a pornographic element," Qi said. Wang's parents were not artists. His mother, a housewife, was part of China's last generation of women to have their feet bound. After teaching art in China after graduation, the Tianjin native went to Australia in 1989 to seek Western inspirations for professional development. China, he said, was too "boring." But after working for 11 years in Australia and gaining Australian citizenship plus a grant from the Australian Council for the Arts, he decided to return home. Australia, he said, also taught him to have fun with life, another force behind his sex-driven art. "Maybe Chinese people lack a sense of humor," he said. "When they're having a revolution, they take themselves too seriously." No one in China has bought any of his underwear art, though some have said they would. His sales have come from clients, male and female, in Australia, South Korea and Ireland, he said. One buyer said he and his wife considered the art to be the "soul of their home," he said. "I've been back here for three years, and I don't understand this market at all," he said. His online ads in Japan have also failed to generate sales, he added. Wang's Chinese wife of three years also does not understand art, he said, but she does not oppose the sex theme as long as it keeps the artist happy. Galleries in China will not accept Wang's art as readily as galleries overseas, Qi said. "Domestically there's not this kind of atmosphere," he said. One example is Zhang Qiuying, owner of the Qin Gallery in Beijing. "That kind of thing is pretty shallow," she said. The Red Gate Gallery in an old city wall watchtower in central Beijing cannot show erotic art because the space is too public, and a promiscuous display could cause trouble, said gallery owner Brian Wallace. But if Wang chooses low-profile exhibit venues, he will earn a following, Wallace said. He said no one else in China is doing sex-related sculpture. Chinese art consumers, he said, "will see it as part of the contemporary art scene. "It's interesting -- landscapes on pink panties," Wallace said. Wang said he eventually wants to find an undergarment company to hire him as a designer so he can reach more people with his art.
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
