by Li Xu

[Excerpted from an essay by the curator, written in conjunction with 7 8 9 10 – Lu Hao, Wang Yin, Xiao Yu, Yang Maoyuan, an exhibition held at the Yibo Gallery, Shanghai, in 2007.]

Ever since the early 1990s, Chinese contemporary art has been appearing in various big-scale international exhibitions such as Venice Biennale, Sao Paulo Biennale and Kassel Documenta. Stepping into the new century, Chinese contemporary art has gained an unexpected success in the commercial market: Auction records of millions of dollars are being renewed all the time; internationally renowned galleries have started to sign contracts with Chinese contemporary artists; and the artists themselves have become cover figures, attracting the attention of media just like famous politicians, film stars and business moguls. This phenomenon was of course unimaginable twenty years ago, when many of the artists were still struggling for the “85 New Wave Movement”.

　　Under the current circumstances, certain forms and styles have accumulated enormous amounts of cultural and commercial values. As a result, even the most creative artists have to carefully maintain their relatively stable artistic languages. Many successful ones are unwilling to step out of their limited spaces or try out new possibilities. In other words, there are fewer and fewer successful individuals who dare to freely change their creative styles.

　　What we present to the audience this time are four artists rare in our times. They are Lu Hao, Wang Yin, Xiao Yu and Yang Maoyuan. Having achieved success long time ago, they could have happily enjoyed their fame for many years, but they are never easily satisfied with the current status. They challenge their existing styles and languages by constantly taking new actions - these new actions show great courage, and more importantly, high quality. …

　　Xiao Yu has established a distinct personal language by juxtaposing and reconstructing biological specimens. He approaches his objects with an air of an alternative “God”and to the contemporary art world, he has become a prominent figure like Frankenstein.. Although his works often take on various visual forms, they invariably take roots in people's psychological and physical experiences, their focus remaining on the existence of human beings and the essence of life. These works are bizarre, horrifying, thrilling and full of suspensions; however, from such powerful expressions one can detect an almost poetic feeling and a unique aesthetic. In fact this is indeed most viewers' impression after seeing Xiao Yu's famous collage of animal, bird, and infant specimens. The artist's wild imagination has given birth to many new species, which carry out cruel fights in extremely absurd settings. The realistic tension of these settings fills the viewers' minds with free associations of mutation, clone technology, environmental pollution, as well as the past and the future of human beings and the world we live in. For this exhibition, Xiao Yu has specially created a new piece: a monument designed for dogs. As one of the first tamed species, dogs have made great contribution to humans but their reputation has always been mixed. By using a flattened dog specimen, Xiao Yu reveals various meanings imposed on dogs by human society and shows us furthermore how meaningless concepts have tortured real lives. In recent years, Xiao Yu has created a series of paintings based on basic patterns that look like butterflies. These enormous “butterflies” take over whole canvases. Painted in an almost abstract fashion, their bright colours seem void and fleeting. Some of them are even immersed in vapour or crystals, leaving only an illusion that resembles tissue scans and sections. During this exhibition, Xiao Yu will also present a painting series with “grass” as its theme. Like “butterflies,” “grass” is also a symbol of the transient, beautiful and fragile life in his artistic world. They are in fact metaphors of a time that is colourful but bizarre, changing but full of uncertainties. If we interpret these images with a bolder approach, we can even say that they are neither “butterflies” nor “grass,” but the classic Rorschach ink-blots in psychology. The abstract forms are projected onto each viewer's mind, producing different results that reflect each viewer's biggest concerns. Since the forms were endowed with various “meanings,” they also appear in different names. …

　　As the curator, I once lost my direction when I was trying to think of a title for the four-person exhibition. This spring, when I was in Beijing, the word “possibility” came to my mind one night and has stuck there ever since. It suddenly occurred to me that all four of them are extremely unique artists, and that although each of them has a different style, they share the same passion and desire that allow them to keep pursuing brand new possibilities.