ART-OTAKU.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

12:41 AM

In this post I’ll be comparing two art works, one from Wang Guang Yi, and the other by Cai Guo Qiang.

Ferrari by Wang Guang Yi

Inopportune Stage One by Cai Guo Qiang

Well the painting by Wang is like the many others in his series. Reason why I picked ‘Ferrari’ is that Cai’s work is an installation filled with cars, so it was either Wang’s ‘Porsche’, ‘BMW’, or ‘Ferrari’.

The main difference here is the medium used by the artists. Cai used a space to engage the viewers with the hanging cars and a video projection 9 feet high and 35 feet long up an entire wall. On the other hand, Wang uses a poster style to carry duplicitous messages, highlighting the conflict between china’s political past and commercialized present.

One similarity shared is what one can infer on the surface of these works. Cai’s installation suggests car-bomb violence in Iraq and although not meant to be, on the surface this work may appear to be addressing political issues. As for Wang’s paintings, they are indeed political pop works and are very obviously showing problems in china by having ‘NO’ and a contemporary brand name together in one composition.

Another thing the works have in common is the traditional touch to the works. Wang’s paintings consist of old fashioned imagery of Chinese soldiers and political leaders presented in a modern pop style. Cai included traditional touches using the ‘explosions’ shown in the installation. The idea of explosions is customary as Gunpowder was invented by the Chinese, as a by-product of alchemy, and in his hometown, social occasions of every stripe are celebrated by setting off firecrackers. For him gunpowder is a natural medium, evoking both good and bad but above all providing a tie to ancient tradition.

Though the slight commonalities, the ways these two works are to be viewed are rather different. Wang’s paintings are to be simply read as posters that sends a message about China’s political past and commercialised present. On the contrary, Cai is not a political artist, and although the image suggests car-bomb violence, he's borrowed the spectacle, not the message. The fact that the car lands undamaged, you see, means that this is art, not war.