Inspired by everyday life
- Source: Global Times
- [08:28 November 03 2010]
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Part of Song Dong's video, Chop Stroke, on display in Beijing.
By Wu Ziru
Following Marcel Duchamp and his famous words "my best work is my life," there have been numerous artists around the world dedicating themselves to breaking the boundaries between life and art. In the Chinese contemporary art scene, conceptual artist Song Dong makes his art entirely from everyday life.
"Every single work of mine is inspired from my life or those of others and I focus on the details that people tend to neglect," Song told the Global Times, in his magnificent 1,600-square-meter studio in far north Beijing.
In more than 20 years of his artistic career, any aspect of people's daily lives can be the source of Song's art, such as living and eating, sleeping and breathing. However, behind the seemingly-common subjects are Song's deep and mature contemplations on life, death and society.
His current exhibition, Song Dong: A Blot on the Landscape, which is being held at Pace Beijing and scheduled to run until December 18, continues his previous artistic way of exploring philosophical and social matters through simple subjects, this time, eating.
At the small-sized exhibition there are only four videos, with each one showing a beautiful landscape that is often seen in traditional Chinese paintings. However, the intriguing aspect is, that all of the landscapes are outlined with various foods such as fruit, vegetables and roast chickens.
While one piece of video shows a beautiful landscape outlined with fruit and vegetables being cut gently with a pair of scissors, another piece displays a landscape made of meat and roast duck being destroyed very barbarously with a kitchen knife.
"There are always multi-meanings in my works," Song explained. "Food, such as fruit and vegetables, grows from nature, which forms an inner link with the landscape they sketch."
"Here the perfect landscapes are being destroyed, with the process itself thought-provoking. Maybe you can connect it with today's environmental issues," Song said, quickly adding that he would never try to define his own works.
Born in 1966 in Beijing, Song is one of the most inventive conceptual artists in Chinese contemporary art. He trades as much in ideas as in materials, often making installations, videos and performance pieces, which altogether have gained him international recognition in the art world.
