Phlegm
Chen Wei
陈维
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
C-type print
Measurements
150 x 150 cm
Notes
Phlegm (2008) depicts a room seemingly long abandoned. Two faded upholstered armchairs face us, on either side of a table bearing a single lidded teacup and, mysteriously, a case containing a pair of binoculars. On the back of one chair perches a rather mangy stuffed owl. A broken electric clock hangs askew on the grimy wall, where big Chinese characters recalling the exhortatory slogans of the Maoist past have been partially erased. A taller table is surmounted by a rock, as if in a Chinese scholar’s study, long ago. A naked fluorescent tube casts a dismal light. Uncanny aspects of the mise-en-scène emerge slowly. A shaft of light illuminates two lumps of pitted, granite-like rock that have fallen with such force that they are embedded into the dirty concrete floor. We look up to see a hole in the ceiling. Has a meteor fallen to earth? Finally, due to a little light illuminating the soles of his shoes, we see the figure of a man crouched with his back to us, kneeling in the tiny space between the chair and the wall. Chen Wei presents us with an insoluble mystery, a scene of such ambiguity that it resists interpretation.
Accession number
2008.038