Mr Sea
Geng Xue
耿雪
Production date
2013-2014
Object Detail
Media
porcelain, stop motion animation of porcelain sculptures (colour, sound)
Measurements
video 13 min 15 sec
ceramics installed approximately 80 x 320 x 160 cm
ceramics installed approximately 80 x 320 x 160 cm
Notes
Mr Sea (2013 – 2014) is based on a story known all over China. The ‘Strange Tales of Liao Zhai’, or ‘Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio’ were written during the Qing Dynasty by Pu Songling. His collection of more than four hundred stories of the strange and supernatural was completed around 1679. Its enormous cast of characters includes ghosts, fox fairies, immortals and demons, ordinary people, and, in a sly satire of his times — and ours — corrupt officials. Pu Songling embedded Confucian and Daoist morals into his allegories, often obliquely critiquing power imbalances in Chinese society. Geng Xue took one of these well-known fables, a tale sometimes translated as ‘Mystery Island’ or as ‘Snake Island’, as the inspiration for her video installation. Reminiscent of the story of Ulysses and the Sirens from Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, it tells of a young explorer who sails to the shores of a mysterious deserted island, where he falls under the spell of a beautiful girl. His adventures end badly, with tragedy and bloodshed. The blue and white porcelain protagonists of Mr Sea, two jointed puppets in human form with expressionless faces, move through an eerie landscape. The bare branches of white porcelain trees wave rhythmically, clattering against each other and sometimes even scuttling like crabs across the ocean floor. Lyrical and evocative, Geng Xue’s allegory of doomed love takes place in shifting light and shadow. The erotic encounters between her characters, and the violent denouement with the arrival of ‘Mr Sea’, a terrifying serpent, are emphasised by the chiming sounds of china hands touching china bodies.
Accession number
2015.271