Piece of Life 18
Liang Yuanwei
梁远苇
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
170 x 200 cm
Notes
Like a bolt of silk being slowly unrolled to display the sheen of its surface, Liang Yuanwei’s Piece of Life 18, and other works in this series slowly reveal themselves. Some critics compared these works to Song Dynasty bird and flower paintings, linking the artist to traditions of Chinese art production. Despite the luscious surfaces of her canvases, though, with their seductive renderings of nostalgic fabrics, her work is conceptually driven, rather than a sensuous manipulation of the plasticity and tactile qualities of paint. There is a cool, considered and slightly ironic intent. The Piece of Life series satirises high modernist ‘all-over’ painting, replacing the serious masculine angst of American mid-century abstraction with domestic textiles as sewn and worn by ordinary women. There is more than a hint at Chinese history and tradition, and the significance of embroidery and textiles in the imperial past.
Accession number
2010.032