Coffin Paint 081211
Wang Guangle
王光乐
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
116 x 114 cm
Notes
Wang Guangle began his important ‘Coffin Paint’ series in 2004, recalling the practice he had witnessed in his rural childhood in Fujian Province, where elderly people paint their own coffins – and repaint them every year they continue to live. Translated literally from the Chinese, the term for coffin paint means ‘longevity lacquering’, an iterative process of slowly accumulating layers of paint representing the accretions of time and experience in a long life. Wang’s version of this traditional process involves a slow, laborious, repetitive approach to the act of painting as pigment is built up layer by layer on the surface of the canvas, becoming a palimpsest of colour. By patiently building up layers of paint to create works that are almost sculptural, and through his reference to Chinese traditional culture, Wang Guangle embodies temporality and the ephemeral nature of being.
Accession number
2010.048