2th International Contemporary Sculpture of Art , Qingdao

About the work

The forms used in this art piece are taken from the outlined shapes featured in Steel Men and Women. The images of bodybuilders, produced by replication, allude to the ambiguity of kitsch culture, a product of capitalism. Kitsch is a type of commodification, always seeking to cater to popular tastes and is easy to comprehend. This is especially true today when kitsch is no longer a phenomenon but a reality—the targets of kitsch imitation and reproduction extend to any and everything.

Group of Non-Steel Men is comprised of two figures measuring roughly three meters tall, one male and one female. Each is constructed from two identical steel pieces arranged in a cross shape. The creations are formed by images outlined in steel; rather than saying they are hollow in the middle, it would be more appropriate to say that these outlines separate or frame the inner space, granting meaning to this space. The images of “non-steel men” do not refer to the artist’s common motif of steel men, but rather depict a misleading impression or perhaps a sentiment of emptiness.

_{Translated by Ada Chen}