Asian Circumscription 1111
Chen Yujun
陈彧君
Production date
2011
Object Detail
Media
acrylic and cotton thread on canvas
Measurements
260 x 600 cm (triptych)
Notes
In paintings and mixed media works that depict ambiguous architectural and interior spaces, Chen suggests the dissolving of boundaries, the multiplicity of influences on contemporary culture, and also, perhaps, the process of constant demolition and reconstruction to which Chinese city dwellers are forced to adapt. Chen Yujun has often worked collaboratively with his brother, Chen Yufan. In 2011, their long-term, ongoing Mulan River Project, an investigation of the history of their hometown, was exhibited in Beijing. The brothers grew up near the Mulan River, often described as the ‘mother river’ of Putian, their hometown in Fujian Province. In their interdisciplinary practice they use old family documents and photographs, paintings, texts and even videos of traditional folk rituals in an idiosyncratic methodology. Recurring themes of home and family, presence and absence, past and present, and public and private space characterise their collaborative works, and Chen Yujun’s independent practice similarly explores these themes. The three panels of the triptych Asian Circumscription 1111 (2011) present us with an empty interior with terrazzo floor and regency striped walls in a predominantly grey palette. A formal armchair, alone in a space much too large for it, casts a shadow. The paint, in some areas applied over heavily textured underpainting, is scumbled, stained and dripped, as if in a denial of realist illusionism. The striped walls and checkered pattern of the floor become a kind of abstract grid, and the demarcation between wall and floor is broken by drips of paint. The furniture and decoration in each uninhabited room represent Chen’s ideas about life in the diaspora: each is like an empty stage set, ready for actors to perform their versions of an alternate form of Chinese identity.
Accession number
2011.021