To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art at the MOMA

August 12, 12:27 PMSF Art ExaminerMarisa Nakasone

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Fang Lijun, 980815, 1998; Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, fractional and promised gift to SFMOMA; photo: Ben Blackwell, courtesy SFMOMA; © Fang Lijun

Chinese contemporary art has stolen the spotlight in the art world of late, boasting record-breaking sales at Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong this spring.  On the global stage, China is the focus of international relations—a major negotiator in world affairs and this year’s host of the Olympic Games. Given China’s rich cultural history and rapidly evolving socio-political landscape, the San Francisco MOMA’s exhibition of contemporary Chinese Art entitled, Half Life of a Dream: Contemporary Art from the Logan Collection, (on display through October 5, 2008) is timely, politically charged, psychologically fraught, and visually exciting. Guest curated by Jeff Kelly of the Asian Art Museum, the exhibit assembles works that poetically address the psychological undercurrent and identity crisis of people trapped by doctrines of collectivism, production, and stifled expression.  The exhibition’s poetic title, Half Life of a Dream, beautifully describes what a society experiences when it, “suddenly wakes up from its leader’s dream” and must reconcile the postmodern world they have woken to and the lingering ghosts of a nightmarish past, as Jeff Kelly elaborates, "with any powerful dream the emergence of contemporary art in China feels caught in a state between sleeping and waking, a state in which the remnants of a dream and reality commingle.”

Close-up of Wenda Gu's United Nations series

While I found the complexity and range of themes organized under the concept of sleep, dreaming, and insomnia very striking, I was also fascinated by the variety of medium. Wenda Gu’s mixed media piece United Nations-Babel of the Millenium, meditates upon history, language and its physical presence on (and represented by) the human body by weaving human hair into calligraphic characters. The contrast of the intimacy of human hair with the uniformity and arbitrary nature of words and symbols provides an enlightening critique on the individual in contemporary Chinese culture. Tactile, disturbing, and simultaneously intimate and universal (through the use of pictograph-like characters and reference to the diversity and confusion of Babel), Wenda Gu's work fits nicely with the rest of the collection.

This exhibited resonated with me deeply and I found myself very much "woken" up by the perspective broadening effect of this exhibit.  As a fourth generation Asian American (Japanese and Okinawan), I have had the privilege of reaping the benefits of my great grandparent's struggle--I grew up with the comfort of a middle-class American lifestyle and have had so many opportunities opened up for me thanks to their hard work and sacrifice.  I find this sense of selflessness and strength to be very honorable and I see this in the courageous work of these artists, some of whom are first and or second generation Chinese Americans.  Regardless of differences in language, cultural upbrining, politics, and geography, one is able to see themselves reflected in the works of this exhibit while catching a glimpse into intimate and culturally specific psyches of the artists represented in this show. 

**This exhibit also features a new triptych, We Have Been Naught, We Shall Be All (2007) by renowned painter and Mills College professor, Liu Hung.