Object of Desire
Wang Zhiyuan
王智远
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
fibreglass, automotive paint, lights, sound
Measurements
363 x 355 x 70 cm
Notes
Wang Zhiyuan is sometimes referred to as ‘the underpants artist’: he has created numerous relief sculptures depicting underpants of all shapes and sizes. He says that his work always begins with humour and from around 2001 he chose to represent underpants on an enormous scale because they are usually hidden and ‘unmentionable’. It was a satirical act intended to puncture the high seriousness with which people regarded contemporary art, a deliberate insertion of something ‘low’ into the space of high culture. In Object of Desire Wang further introduces an element of the unsavoury idea that love and sex are purely transactional commodities. In this ‘Beauty and the Beast’ scenario the young woman trades her favours for diamonds while the old boar’s buying power is confirmed in this unequal exchange. The floating Chinese clouds around their heads remind us that in ancient Chinese ‘clouds and rain’ was a poetic euphemism for sex. The phrase ‘Diamonds matter most’ is spelled out in both English and Chinese across the work and the use of neon and lurid flesh-pink further allude to tawdry nightclubs and karaoke bars, centres of the sex trade in China. The audio emphasises the air of romantic disillusionment – they are all tracks by the famous Shanghai singer and movie star of the 1930s and 1940s, Zhou Xuan, with titles such as ‘Nightlife in Shanghai’, ‘Don’t Rely on Youth’ and ‘The Hatred of the Brothel’. Wang says that this work was influenced by his shock at the dramatic changes in Chinese society when he returned after ten years in Australia and found an increasingly greedy and materialistic attitude dominating social discourse and relationships.
Accession number
2008.081