Bang Bang!!!
Chen Fei
陈飞
Production date
2005
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
60 x 360 cm (triptych)
Notes
The creatures in Chen Fei’s paintings are clearly humanoid to some degree: some have eyes and mouths, and they sometimes possess hands and feet. They are certainly made of flesh; these pink balls of ‘meat’ explode or are slit open to reveal piles of glistening jewels instead of viscera. At first seemingly ‘cute’, on closer inspection these grotesque creatures evoke disgust. Chen Fei’s flat, stylised canvases reveal his alarm at the greed of Chinese society in an era of globalisation and newly acquired wealth. Educated in Guangdong Province before the full impact of Reform and Opening made itself felt in the Pearl River Delta (sometimes called the world’s factory), Chen Fei feels a sense of betrayal at the results of the famous slogan attributed to Deng Xiaoping: ‘To get rich is glorious’.
Accession number
2006.001