Comparison of Wang Guang Yi with another Chinese Contemporary Artist

This is an Oil on canvas painting by a Chinese contemporary artist named Guo Wei.

The first obvious difference is in the style of art that each artists are from. WGY is a political pop artist whereas GW is a contemporary realist artist. The obvious difference is thus the fact that GW does not use previously available artworks and just incorporate it in his artwork like WGY. This means that their technique of delivering the message of the artwork would be different. WGY intentionally uses 'ready-made' picture which are symbolic of the Chinese ideology in Mao's Regime and paste it against modern consumer brands to deliver his message. Thus WGY uses symbolic images and juxtapositions them to create a complex content. However GW creates his own composition and it is his unique form of composition that is his technique. He tends to isolate people in their everyday life situations in an unrecognizable background. He paints these people from a bended perspective which does not seem comfortable and use it as a method of studying who these people are and what they are going through in modern China.
They are similar in their use of humans in their paintings to create a commentary on today's Chinese society and culture. They seem to be both centered around the effects and facts about the Chinese people rather than the nation or the environment. However they have different focuses in which they talk about he people. WGY talks about people collectively as a community and how transformations are widespread across society. In a way WGY deteriorates the individuality of people ( by numbering them) as they conform and integrates with each other and with cultures outside china as well. However WG's focus is especially in the individuals of today's society, especially the restless nature of teenagers. He emphasizes individuality, personality and identity as he tries to express the development of stress in the new liberalizing China. This is in contrast to the 'old' China with extreme communism where the state and community is placed above all. Thus they are also similar in their topic of discussion which is about the cultural revolution of China and how they are more like the western countries.

Art & Society

Art & Entertainment
Entertainment is an art. There are many types of entertainment in the world in the form of movies, music, comedy, etc. Acting, directing and script writing can all be considered a type of art that requires artistic skills to perform. Entertainment like art is a creative outlet for people as well as a leisure activity to relax and enjoy. Of our lives that we’re given and in the daily routines we employ ourselves in entertainment gives additional meaning to life with the pleasure derived from it. There are many people says music or dancing it everything to them. It also creates a huge industry in itself allowing those artistically inclined to make a living supported solely by the rest of us who needs entertainment even though it does not fill our stomach, inform us or educate us in any major way.
Business, Science & Technology
Art does not exist alone on itself but merges with all these three items. Art can be a business and businesses are always using art such as in advertising, because art is a powerful medium. Science and technology always use art as well. In studying anatomy or inventing ideas. Art also employs science and technology as artists like Damien Hirst use to preserve his artworks or as simply as spray painting or digital art.
Communication & Media
Communication and media can be from news channels like CNN, entertainment venues and to paparazzi in the form of print materials, television, radio and the internet. Mainly it’s a way to deliver a message to someone or a large group of people. Art is also a media for artists to communicate with the audience. They can communicate even social or environmental messages like artists like Ron Mueck or Lucia Hartini.
Disadvantaged & Marginalized
We are so far away from Utopia and today amongst us are many those who are poor and discriminated. Art has brought some of those people who were peasants, farmers or slumdogs out of their misfortune such as Constantin Brancusi or Dede Eri Supria. And when these artists become known for their art it is their backgrounds that are reflected in their work. Brancusi’s minimalistic and abstract sculptures are influenced by his Roman background. Supria paints the slums of Indonesia and speaks for the people from the slums who lives in bad sanitation and cramped slums full of garbage. Art can still be appreciated by anyone rich or poor and it could be the one thing that could bring us together like music for Bob Marley.
Education & School
These are required and expected for every common and class of people to have in order for you to escape poverty and fit in with the rest of the people. Children from the age of five starts to conform to the expectations of society where they start to learn and compete in school because that is the ONLY way to having at least a decent livelihood. Especially in developed countries like Singapore it has been a must and it is quite normal. In a way it is quite suffocating as you never had a choice but you do it just because you need to. The world has been set up by those before us that we have to fix our lives to fit in that world. Because it is more efficient and it leads towards an economic growth. This is in contrast to the self-sustained livelihood where your survival did not require you to fulfill society’s expectations. Artists in a way have that advantage because they don’t produce art for people to like and they have a whole lot more room to be individual.
Family & Home
Families and homes are the largest or the only group of patrons and producers of art. Because society is but a circular flow where one becomes what the other needs today.
Government & Leadership
Art has been employed by governments and national leaders. Art has a great power of delivering a message. It could be used as propaganda used by Hitler to create a nation full of brainwash soldiers big enough to cause the Second World War However, the government may also be the entity who is blocking the use of art and may have policies against certain type of art with bans and censorship. Because art is used by the people in the society for political messages all the time and its ability to emphasize a point in a light hearted way such as a political cartoon have the greatest impact on people.

Post Box Graffiti Stunt

Half a dozen of post boxes around the island of Singapore were "vandalized" with graffiti spray paints recently. This act raised public concern that was unexpected by the organizers of the stunt. It was sponsored by SingPost which hired a local events agency A Group of People to do the act. A man in a masked figure called the "Inkman" made spray paintings on post boxes to promote the Youth Olympic Games and an art competition themed Sports & The City. Singpost has already asked the police if this was against the law and told the timings and locations of the stunts before hand although the police were just told the stunt will be "out-of-the-box".

The people at stake here were the SingPost, the Inkman and A Group Of People, the police and the citizens of Singapore. SingPost's unexpected negative response of the people and the had frankly frightened the authorities in SingPost and make them question the logic behind their actions. The Inkman's and his Group's safety was also at stake as they were the people who was directly involed in 'vandalizing' the boxes and would be held responsible for the inconvenience in addition to SingPost. Lastly the it may create dislike and inconvenience for the people who uses them or passes by it. However these people were not actually harmed in any direct way even if they were to see the stunt in action it self other than a delay in time for their own curiosity.

I'm not sure if the unnecessary public alarm was caused by curiosity or concern over the general welfare of people. If i were in the situation i would have just watched and thought about why this guy was doing it. Singapore is a developed country, and if this stunt wasn't being stopped by the police in about 15 mins i would just stayed and see the message of all this. Although most likely i would just look at it while i walk pass by turning my head a little more that usual. It would've affected the people who used or wanted to use the box more although i doubt the majority of people who were concerned weren't. It goes to show people panic if they see something out of the ordinary happening and wasn't told about it earlier. Like the character ... said in the movie... if people were told that something was going to happen before hand they won't panic so much even if the event was harmful.

What's normal in society is decided by the society because what is 'normal or common' but what the majority of us are accustomed to. This was uncommon in Singapore but a lot of things common in other areas would have been uncommon here. Common shifts and adapts among different societies. Graffiti works in unauthorized areas are illegal and would even be caned if caught doing like it has been done in the past for vandalism. So it isn't that alarming that people would be caught surprise and concerned for this. This may especially be since some may view graffiti as vandalism more than art.I do think that this is an act of art, a street art in the public area. Although there are different parties who will highly oppose this for instance the owner of the wall that was vandalized. However in this case SingPost was in on it so it was alright.

The lesson we can learn from it next time if a thing like this were to occur in a country like Singapore is that if you're doing anything "out-of-the-box" give the people a heads up. If the act were legal and told before hand that this was for a promotion and the Inkman was hired, it would have caused less alarm even if the people did not like it. Some may even appreciate further if they knew what it was about, for instance the freedom to "Express Yourself." I guess the intention and the medium was acceptable or decent but the stunt lost its applause in the delivery. The audience and the people who would have been affected should have been let known before or even right after the stunt.

Give Peace a Chance

John Lennon is a British celebrity who was one of the founding members of The Beatles. He is a singer, songwriter, author and most importantly a peace activist. Yoko Ono is a Japanese-American avant-garde artist and musician who met Lennon on business occation and married him a few years later. They were both very anti-war and conducted a peace demonstrations. The first which was in a hotel on their honeymoon in 1969 and the second one a hotel room in Canada. It was to promote peace and protest against violence. He did so by saying people should stay in bed and grow their hair so they won't be doing violent things else where. He claims no one ever gave peace a complete chance and believed in using non-violent ways to achieve is since using violence only promotes more violence. They gained many supporters globally as the story had worldwide media coverage.
It is a demonstration of the importance of us to start taking action and move towards peace is like a peace of art not meant to be just read directly. However i still think about the fact of the lethargy of peace. Can people be peaceful if they are doing something, such as work or trying to get something for themselves like food and money.

Valuable Art

I think there a few criteria that makes a piece of art valuable.
The most obvious is how aesthetic the piece of art work is. Such could be in the form of skill and technique in creating a lifelike realistic sculpture that of Mueck or like Pollock's abstract expressionist paintings. Their works are hard to replicate and their skills are easily appreciated.
Another thing that makes art valuable is the the message with which it is sending through the artwork. Powerful intentions and deep messages make an artwork a lot more meaningful as the content corresponds with the intended message. Such art will stimulate the audience to think beyond what is present in front of them, the usual things that are in your mind or present to you the obvious truth which is usually ignored. Such can be in a common form such as Hartini's effort to bring unity and less prejudice in her community. Or it could be as unconventional as Dadaism which even seeked to change the face of art as it was.
Of course once an artist's become famous, usually his artworks will valued. He or she would have achieved a level of respect for what he does which the general public can relate to. Often art which is original or has historical value will be valued very much. Another reason which may make a piece of art valuable is due to the cost which takes to make it. For instance, Hirst's diamond skull has a high value on its own before it was assembled. However, it is worth much much more afterwards.

Mystery 2

The photograph seems to be a section of the wall of a gallery as suggested by the small information notes next to the displayed works on the wall. In the picture, the displayed work seems to be a flowery printed strip of wall paper stuck on the wall with one corner of the wallpaper coming off.

The punctum of the photo is the two information card that allows the viewers to know that this is a gallery and not just a work studio or someone’s house. Although of course the first and most attention grabbing item is the flowery printed sheet itself. Then the corner of the ‘wallpaper’ that is coming out makes us think further into what the message of the picture could be. If is was done on purpose, why?

To me the stadium of the photo could be a message of change and instability of things. It shows me that almost everything do not last forever, even the most beautiful of things which are meant to be kept such as the flowery print or things meant to be quite durable like a wallpaper. In the end after some time it all has to come down or get replaced. Makes me want to try and advance myself as a living being.

THE UGLY TRUTH

One of Gerry's latest movie on screen. =)
Favorite quotes:

Abby: Why do you love me?
Mike: Beats the shit out of me but i do.

Mike: (to his new producer who is a man) You know what i like about you is that i don't wanna have sex with you.

Mike: I just told you i love you and you're giving me a vocabulary lesson.

Abby: You'll never know