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Lot Essay
A Truth Hitting Too Close to Home
Swimming by Liu Wei hit quite a few nerves at its unveiling during the 1994 Sao Paulo Art Biennial. Viewers were forced to shrug off all the bigotry and high moral principles they had been conditioned to, to understand the signication of the piece from the perspectives of art history, psychology, history, and social background, while respecting its unique standing in contemporary Chinese art.
"Beauty" is the benchmark by which the world measures the quality of a piece of art. Judged by that criterion, Swimming by Liu Wei would most definitely be a laughing stock: the lady featured in the piece sports a pair of masculine, thick eyebrows; the coarse hair are entangled and snarled in crinkly messes. The skin on her contorted face and body is lumpy, as if recovering unsuccessfully from an unmentionable dermatologic condition. Her flaring nostrils and teeth makes a defiant statement against classic elegance. What's more, the lady, featured in life-size, exposed her privates - almost mutinously - for all to see. Onlookers have no idea where to cast their eyes without embarrassment. This brings to light another touchy issue: where should the boundaries be drawn between art and erotica, high class or vulgarity? Is realism considered a form of beauty?
The delicate relationship between art and erotica has been an all-time favorite with artists since time immemorial. Their significations are defined differently by the changing social contexts. "Venus of Willendorf," a female figure estimated to have been made about 2,2,000 BCE, is such an example. Her swollen breasts and the prominent, slightly protruding pubic area are associated with prehistoric worship of mother earth and female fertility (fig. 1). Ancient Indian civilization also practiced fertility rites, and organized Lingam (phallus) and yoni (vulva) worships(fig. 2). During the Baroque period, many an artist borrowed ideas from religious and mythical materials to create a profusion of classic pieces to reflect the reality of human existence(fig. 32). Erotic art of the Han Dynasty was a bold statement that snubbed conventional Confucius teachings and feudal code of ethics. Paintings of men and women in lovemaking by Tang Yin of the Ming Dynasty were widely embraced by artists to come. Japanese artist Keisai Eisen was a prolific producer of highly influential erotic depictions (fig. 43). The Origin of the World by leader of the Realism movement, Gustave Courbet, depicted a close-up view of the genitals and abdomen of a naked woman(fig. 54). The work was completed in 1866, and was heavily criticized for its provocative nature; yet it is currently one of the most prized pieces housed in the Mus?e d'Orsay in Paris for its pioneering import.
The founding father of psychoanalysis, Austrian-born neurologist Sigmund Freud believed that the libido in humans is developed since infancy, and the aforesaid arists from both east and west - including Liu Wei from China - are simply regressing to the very fundamental behavior of being human through their erotic art. Also, Freud also theorized in his structural model of the psyche that there are three theoretical constructs that define human's mentality: the Id represents the primal drives in human, and libido is certainly one of the drives; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role, a voice of conscience molded by social conditioning; the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the Id and the super-ego. A person's character becomes repressed and off-kilter when the super-ego is inflated to a degree that it oppresses the Id.
Born and reared in a family of rigorous, right-wing military traditions, Liu Wei was forcefully conditioned by constraints; his "Id" was pressured on all sides. What Liu experienced was the omnipresent political monitoring of Communist China, where the collective consciousness of the society is uniformlly defined by a revolutionary regime. The same conditioning is applied to every individual. Such forceful social conditioning is destructive on one's psyche and personhood, and it leads to restlessness and anxiety. Relationships between the opposite sex were a great taboo during Cultural Revolution, and sex was the consummate offense. The oppressed social climate was reflected by the unisex attire, so men and women alike were rendered "sexless." This conditioning was the cruelest form of castration: the generation grown up during Cultural Revolution has been robbed of its natural-born desires, and faculties to stay balanced, thus the irreversible emotional damage.
Freud believed that the key to psychological balance lies in facing one's traumas and desires through consciousness. Liu Wei, an artist who grew up after the Cultural Revolution, was detached and insolent; his attitude empowered him to elevate Swimming up to a platform for ethnic and spiritual healing. He displayed the confrontation between the super-ego and Id on his canvas: the naked lady and her flaunting of privates represented mankind's primitive desires (Id). The coated-figure standing on the red flowers in the upper left corner, with fierce glares in the eyes, signified the inflictor of social conditioning (Super-ego). The milky white, roe-like secretion sprayed from the red flowers on the lady, in addition to its insinuation of orgasms and fertility, was a metaphor of political vanquishing and possession of the people. The middle-aged man on the upper right corner, with his stuck-out tongue at the lady's privates, harbored ill intentions; this man resembled the threat of the authorities to the individuals, and humans' primitive inclinations of voyerism. The Room (fig. 65) by Polish-French artist Balthus, portrayed a young girl masturbating in a dark chamber; a dwarf yanked the curtains open to let in the sunlight. The shock of the girl at being voeyered was mixed with pleasure and humiliation. This girl and the middle-aged lady in Swimming shared the same dilemma: they were powerlessness about their surroundings.
Liu Wei expounded on that truth hitting too close to home boldly, reminding the numerous, faceless individuals out there that sex is one of the most fundamental aspect of human existence. Swimming has transcended the controversies about taste or the lack thereof: it is a mirror that reflects the collective psyche of a repressed generation It reflects the truth inside every one of us, the truth - regardless of its goodness or evil - that none of us wants to look squarely at. All there is, is an honest reflection of human existence. This truth cannot be documented faithfully by any artistic rendition; yet it eclipses the reality of the realism approach. With this piece, Liu Wei summed up human desires as a reasonable virtue, integrating it with an artistic touch outside the bounds of beauty and ugliness. It is the cure-all for reconstructing racial integrity.
Swimming by Liu Wei hit quite a few nerves at its unveiling during the 1994 Sao Paulo Art Biennial. Viewers were forced to shrug off all the bigotry and high moral principles they had been conditioned to, to understand the signication of the piece from the perspectives of art history, psychology, history, and social background, while respecting its unique standing in contemporary Chinese art.
"Beauty" is the benchmark by which the world measures the quality of a piece of art. Judged by that criterion, Swimming by Liu Wei would most definitely be a laughing stock: the lady featured in the piece sports a pair of masculine, thick eyebrows; the coarse hair are entangled and snarled in crinkly messes. The skin on her contorted face and body is lumpy, as if recovering unsuccessfully from an unmentionable dermatologic condition. Her flaring nostrils and teeth makes a defiant statement against classic elegance. What's more, the lady, featured in life-size, exposed her privates - almost mutinously - for all to see. Onlookers have no idea where to cast their eyes without embarrassment. This brings to light another touchy issue: where should the boundaries be drawn between art and erotica, high class or vulgarity? Is realism considered a form of beauty?
The delicate relationship between art and erotica has been an all-time favorite with artists since time immemorial. Their significations are defined differently by the changing social contexts. "Venus of Willendorf," a female figure estimated to have been made about 2,2,000 BCE, is such an example. Her swollen breasts and the prominent, slightly protruding pubic area are associated with prehistoric worship of mother earth and female fertility (fig. 1). Ancient Indian civilization also practiced fertility rites, and organized Lingam (phallus) and yoni (vulva) worships(fig. 2). During the Baroque period, many an artist borrowed ideas from religious and mythical materials to create a profusion of classic pieces to reflect the reality of human existence(fig. 32). Erotic art of the Han Dynasty was a bold statement that snubbed conventional Confucius teachings and feudal code of ethics. Paintings of men and women in lovemaking by Tang Yin of the Ming Dynasty were widely embraced by artists to come. Japanese artist Keisai Eisen was a prolific producer of highly influential erotic depictions (fig. 43). The Origin of the World by leader of the Realism movement, Gustave Courbet, depicted a close-up view of the genitals and abdomen of a naked woman(fig. 54). The work was completed in 1866, and was heavily criticized for its provocative nature; yet it is currently one of the most prized pieces housed in the Mus?e d'Orsay in Paris for its pioneering import.
The founding father of psychoanalysis, Austrian-born neurologist Sigmund Freud believed that the libido in humans is developed since infancy, and the aforesaid arists from both east and west - including Liu Wei from China - are simply regressing to the very fundamental behavior of being human through their erotic art. Also, Freud also theorized in his structural model of the psyche that there are three theoretical constructs that define human's mentality: the Id represents the primal drives in human, and libido is certainly one of the drives; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role, a voice of conscience molded by social conditioning; the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the Id and the super-ego. A person's character becomes repressed and off-kilter when the super-ego is inflated to a degree that it oppresses the Id.
Born and reared in a family of rigorous, right-wing military traditions, Liu Wei was forcefully conditioned by constraints; his "Id" was pressured on all sides. What Liu experienced was the omnipresent political monitoring of Communist China, where the collective consciousness of the society is uniformlly defined by a revolutionary regime. The same conditioning is applied to every individual. Such forceful social conditioning is destructive on one's psyche and personhood, and it leads to restlessness and anxiety. Relationships between the opposite sex were a great taboo during Cultural Revolution, and sex was the consummate offense. The oppressed social climate was reflected by the unisex attire, so men and women alike were rendered "sexless." This conditioning was the cruelest form of castration: the generation grown up during Cultural Revolution has been robbed of its natural-born desires, and faculties to stay balanced, thus the irreversible emotional damage.
Freud believed that the key to psychological balance lies in facing one's traumas and desires through consciousness. Liu Wei, an artist who grew up after the Cultural Revolution, was detached and insolent; his attitude empowered him to elevate Swimming up to a platform for ethnic and spiritual healing. He displayed the confrontation between the super-ego and Id on his canvas: the naked lady and her flaunting of privates represented mankind's primitive desires (Id). The coated-figure standing on the red flowers in the upper left corner, with fierce glares in the eyes, signified the inflictor of social conditioning (Super-ego). The milky white, roe-like secretion sprayed from the red flowers on the lady, in addition to its insinuation of orgasms and fertility, was a metaphor of political vanquishing and possession of the people. The middle-aged man on the upper right corner, with his stuck-out tongue at the lady's privates, harbored ill intentions; this man resembled the threat of the authorities to the individuals, and humans' primitive inclinations of voyerism. The Room (fig. 65) by Polish-French artist Balthus, portrayed a young girl masturbating in a dark chamber; a dwarf yanked the curtains open to let in the sunlight. The shock of the girl at being voeyered was mixed with pleasure and humiliation. This girl and the middle-aged lady in Swimming shared the same dilemma: they were powerlessness about their surroundings.
Liu Wei expounded on that truth hitting too close to home boldly, reminding the numerous, faceless individuals out there that sex is one of the most fundamental aspect of human existence. Swimming has transcended the controversies about taste or the lack thereof: it is a mirror that reflects the collective psyche of a repressed generation It reflects the truth inside every one of us, the truth - regardless of its goodness or evil - that none of us wants to look squarely at. All there is, is an honest reflection of human existence. This truth cannot be documented faithfully by any artistic rendition; yet it eclipses the reality of the realism approach. With this piece, Liu Wei summed up human desires as a reasonable virtue, integrating it with an artistic touch outside the bounds of beauty and ugliness. It is the cure-all for reconstructing racial integrity.