Valiant Struggle 11
Chen Wenling
陈文令
Production date
2006
Object Detail
Media
bronze, stainless steel, fibreglass, gold leaf, sound speakers, automotive paint
Measurements
819 x 670 x 230 cm
Notes
In their context of the early years of the twenty-first century and the development of contemporary sculpture in China, Chen Wenling’s sculptures echo the pre-occupation of many artists with what they observed as decadence and naked greed in Reform and Opening era China. Artists satirised the new obsession with western consumer brands, self-indulgence, social climbing, and the fetishisation of luxury goods: Chen’s Valiant Struggle 11 is no exception. Influenced initially by folk sculpture and pictorial traditions that he absorbed in his undergraduate studies in Xiamen – the grinning faces and fat bodies of many of his figures echo Spring Festival pictures and rural stone and wood carving traditions. Here, a rotund red car that resembles a pig pokes out an enormous, somewhat phallic tongue that extends 11 metres into the air. From its tip dangles a gold-painted sow, tied up by one trotter like a carcass in an abattoir. Its mouth is wide open as if it is squealing. From its dangling legs in turn, corpulent male and female figures are suspended, holding on for dear life, determined not to let their prize escape their grasp. This is Chen’s humorous but starkly satirical observation of modern society – he sees it as greedy and grasping, competitive and cruel.
Accession number
2006.005