Wang Qingsong lives and works in a complex in Cao Changdi that Ai Weiwei designed. Ai designed the whole area basically and if there are buildings that he didn’t design, someone else designed the buildings to look like his – a poor man’s Ai Weiwei as Pauline Yao calls it. Wang Qingsong makes photos like one makes movies… The CC Demille of the static image he often employs hundreds and even thousands of hired extras… sometimes they all take off their clothes … it must feel nice to be around so many naked bodies in a big film studio… with the cold and dampness seeking through the floor..
Anyway Wang Qingsong has a great space where he’s carving a bunch of prohibition signs (the circular signs witha diagnol line through it that means NO: spitting, walking on the grass, noise making, fireworks, pooping) into his wall because he had this idea and he has some folks hanging around that can execute it. It’s part home decoration, part art … a little experimental relief from the epic images. He’s also having a BIG show at the BIG PKM Gallery around the block from his studio . The complex where PKM is housed is one of the aforementioned poor man Ai Weiwei’s but quite impressive nonetheless as is most every gallery and studio space that one finds in China these days.
Wang Qingsong was originally going to modify the gallery to look like it was poised midway in a state of demolition- broken beams, concrete carnage, reinforcement rod, etc. But after the Earthquake hit he decided it’d be plain wrong. So he changed gears and came up with the idea of wrapping the entire space in the ubiquitous and multipurpose red, white and blue plastic tarp that seems to cloak much of China’s urban centers. Used for construction blinds, makeshift roofs, protective covering the material has also played a big part in Sichuan’s earthquake relief. As much as Wang Qingsong wanted to avoid the earthquake he essentially walked right back into it. The material used to cover the near 1000sqm surface area of PKM gallery proved difficult in gathering – instead of having one type of the material the artist had to patch together a few different types- due to efforts to move the stuff out to Sichuan for the millions of homeless.
On the walls the artist printed some classical works of art from both China and the west extra large, effectually converting the space into a makeshift museum. The reproduced works of Van Gogh, Rembrant, Qi Baishi, Munch and Xu Beihong become a foreground in the backdrop of Wang Qingsong’s photographic work. Upstairs the resulting mural size prints were displayed and sold as a set of three in an edition of three for about 50,000USD. In the backroom a direct feed from the gallery’s surveillance cameras were projected. “Caution”, as the piece is titled is wide open to interpretation … but somehow, in this earthquake saturated media zone, never ends up getting too far from the tremor.
Anyway Wang Qingsong has a great space where he’s carving a bunch of prohibition signs (the circular signs witha diagnol line through it that means NO: spitting, walking on the grass, noise making, fireworks, pooping) into his wall because he had this idea and he has some folks hanging around that can execute it. It’s part home decoration, part art … a little experimental relief from the epic images. He’s also having a BIG show at the BIG PKM Gallery around the block from his studio . The complex where PKM is housed is one of the aforementioned poor man Ai Weiwei’s but quite impressive nonetheless as is most every gallery and studio space that one finds in China these days.
Wang Qingsong was originally going to modify the gallery to look like it was poised midway in a state of demolition- broken beams, concrete carnage, reinforcement rod, etc. But after the Earthquake hit he decided it’d be plain wrong. So he changed gears and came up with the idea of wrapping the entire space in the ubiquitous and multipurpose red, white and blue plastic tarp that seems to cloak much of China’s urban centers. Used for construction blinds, makeshift roofs, protective covering the material has also played a big part in Sichuan’s earthquake relief. As much as Wang Qingsong wanted to avoid the earthquake he essentially walked right back into it. The material used to cover the near 1000sqm surface area of PKM gallery proved difficult in gathering – instead of having one type of the material the artist had to patch together a few different types- due to efforts to move the stuff out to Sichuan for the millions of homeless.
On the walls the artist printed some classical works of art from both China and the west extra large, effectually converting the space into a makeshift museum. The reproduced works of Van Gogh, Rembrant, Qi Baishi, Munch and Xu Beihong become a foreground in the backdrop of Wang Qingsong’s photographic work. Upstairs the resulting mural size prints were displayed and sold as a set of three in an edition of three for about 50,000USD. In the backroom a direct feed from the gallery’s surveillance cameras were projected. “Caution”, as the piece is titled is wide open to interpretation … but somehow, in this earthquake saturated media zone, never ends up getting too far from the tremor.
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