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Lot Essay
Tang Zhigang's earliest works suggested military life full of humble responsibilities. Drilling (Lot 141) from 1989 offers humanistic depictions of soldiers performing menial everyday tasks, simple and unadorned. Practicing as a painter first in the propaganda bureau of the People's Liberation Army in Socialist Realist style with social cause and egalitarianism, Tang Zhigang developed an acute understanding of the authoritarian system, and its fetishisation of process and formalities.
In Adults in Meeting (Lot 139) from 1997, the characters appeared extremely composed, all clapping their hands as if they unanimously agree to something. The posturing and carefully arranged white teacups are analogous to the dynamics of power play among adults and add a touch of pompous civility to the scene. The long rectangular table and microphone further add to the official, authoritarian vista. A humdrum routine and a tool for political propaganda, meeting is the most essential element of the highly bureaucratised life.
1998 was the time of Tang Zhigang's first important transformation, as the directness and exposure of Adult Meeting was replaced by the humour and innuendo of Children's Meeting. Chinese Fairy Tales (Lot 140) from 2004 illustrates a violent yet gripping sight, children are fighting in a theatrical-like setting. It inevitably beguile the viewer with their scenes of innocent toddlers play, but at the same time these invented tableau reveal the hitherto darker side of the sarcasm, that violence are part of human nature. In 1600s, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes first speculated that the "natural condition of mankind" was one of violence and conflict. Hobbes believed that humans are encouraged to attack and prey on one another mainly by fear of uncertainty. It's not a love of domination that makes people violent, but an overpowering need for safety. Violence is being replayed over and over on the stage. A clear schism is visible between the people on stage and onlookers, who demonstrate detached perplexity and passive response against the brutality they witness. The object of his ironic humour is then an endemic level of human nature and confrontation of philosophical questions, a position that renders Tang Zhigang's depiction of the figures as humorous as it is maddeningly accurate.
In Adults in Meeting (Lot 139) from 1997, the characters appeared extremely composed, all clapping their hands as if they unanimously agree to something. The posturing and carefully arranged white teacups are analogous to the dynamics of power play among adults and add a touch of pompous civility to the scene. The long rectangular table and microphone further add to the official, authoritarian vista. A humdrum routine and a tool for political propaganda, meeting is the most essential element of the highly bureaucratised life.
1998 was the time of Tang Zhigang's first important transformation, as the directness and exposure of Adult Meeting was replaced by the humour and innuendo of Children's Meeting. Chinese Fairy Tales (Lot 140) from 2004 illustrates a violent yet gripping sight, children are fighting in a theatrical-like setting. It inevitably beguile the viewer with their scenes of innocent toddlers play, but at the same time these invented tableau reveal the hitherto darker side of the sarcasm, that violence are part of human nature. In 1600s, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes first speculated that the "natural condition of mankind" was one of violence and conflict. Hobbes believed that humans are encouraged to attack and prey on one another mainly by fear of uncertainty. It's not a love of domination that makes people violent, but an overpowering need for safety. Violence is being replayed over and over on the stage. A clear schism is visible between the people on stage and onlookers, who demonstrate detached perplexity and passive response against the brutality they witness. The object of his ironic humour is then an endemic level of human nature and confrontation of philosophical questions, a position that renders Tang Zhigang's depiction of the figures as humorous as it is maddeningly accurate.