Own Game
Chang Liang
常湸
Production date
2010
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
200 x 160 cm
Notes
Bubbles became a crucial element in Chang Liang’s surrealist work after 2010. ‘The meaning of the bubble varies in different works, but it is somehow related to the idea of appearance or vanishment. Bubbles are like illusions or desires whose origins we would hardly pay attention to. Yet, drowned in them, we doubt and lose our judgements,’ says Chang. In marked contrast to his more recent work featuring absentminded figures positioned in gloomy, shabby interiors, Own Game 2010 depicts a young girl in a white chiffon dress blowing bubbles light-heartedly. Against a cardinal red background, an enormous bubble mountain appears underneath her feet. Perhaps, without the girl’s awareness, these bubbles have formed several peculiar faces, torsos and the hands of Buddha statues floating towards every direction, symbolising a historical moment – a time of confusion and a search for meaning by many in Chinese society.
Accession number
2011.012