Chinese Garden 8
Dong Wensheng
董文胜
Production date
2005
Object Detail
Media
gelatin silver print
Measurements
80 x 80 cm
Notes
Dong Wensheng’s Chinese Garden series of 2005 is inspired by the melancholy beauty of southern Chinese gardens, enclosed and highly artificial landscapes seen here as a metaphor for China’s history. Shot in gardens in the southern city of Changzhou, they feature sculptural arrangements of ‘Taihu’ rocks (weathered, pitted limestone rocks from Taihu Lake in Jiangsu were highly prized additions to garden design), pools and waterfalls, pavilions with lanterns hanging from upturned eaves, and spindly pine trees. Dong introduces surreal and disquieting elements into the idyllic miniature worlds created by the garden designers: Chinese Garden 8, an allusion to Courbet’s notorious La Source (1868), depicts a nude woman partially submerged in the dark waters of an ornamental lake. Her pale naked bottom is the focal point, its roundness echoed by the reflections of the rocks surrounding her. By inserting these sexual references, Dong Wensheng subverts the ascetic scholarly pursuits of the literati, who contemplated philosophy, poetry and art in their beautifully designed gardens, oases of tranquillity in which every element was symbolic and deliberate.
Accession number
2014.136