Weng Fen's Beautiful New World

　　By Gu Zhengqing, curator

　　With the rising of China, the issue of modernity has become the top priority across the country. It is, I believe, also one of the key issues the Chinese contemporary art community has to address. Nevertheless, despite a huge number of artists who like to advocate their Chinese identity, few have made any attempt to express their thoughts on this special phenomenon. Weng Fen is one of the few artists who have created many series of work to depict the changes of urban residents’ mentality as well as the discrepancy between their expectation and the reality of the society, both caused by the nation’s rapid economic development in a global setting. His works include “On the Wall” photo series (2001), “Bird's Eye” photo series (2002), installation “Viewing Stand” (2003) and “Staring at the Sea” photo series. The photos taken by Weng Fen always leave the viewers with a complicated sensation that recedes slowly. In his works, issues of traditional and modern life, economic globalization and China’s own path, as well as the unbalanced development in the urban consumer society are intertwined in the common background of modernity. Therefore, his work brings out subtle emotions that used to hide deep in our minds, leading to strong and irresistible emotional fluctuations. We also get the feeling of becoming an integral part of the pictures: standing right behind the girls in his “On The Wall” and “Bird's Eye” series, we are looking in the same direction at the gigantic modern cities. Instead of being in an ecstasy of delight, we, as a part of the development process toward modernization, inevitably experience a timeless solitude and great mental burden. Compared with the thin girls in the pictures, it is us that appear to be lost more deeply in a state of helplessness.

　　Weng Fen continues his exploration of the modernity issue by turning out new pieces of work, hoping to find a solution. His work in 2005, “Building with Eggs”, is one such attempt. This project was started at the end of 2004 and has been widely known to the Chinese art community since then. Due to the huge amount of work it requires, it was finished only recently in August, 2005. Around ten thousand chicken eggs and slightly fewer duck and quail eggs with their contents removed were used in the project to constitute an 8×4×1m miniature model city. Viewing from above, people see a complete picture taken from the image on a 50-yuan banknote. The green banknote, still in circulation now in China, shows the profiles of a worker, a peasant and an intellect in the middle of it. Like a concrete forest growing out of the banknote, the model vividly represents a typical Chinese city developing in a competitive international environment. Problems occurred frequently during the process of creation, which almost led to a complete failure several times. I believe this experience reflects the similarly unstable state of the nation's economic and political environment. Shortly after the project started, the Chinese government was urged by the US and Europe to revaluate its RMB, triggering heated debates around the globe. In July 21, 2005, after months of pressure from the US and Europe, China scrapped the Yuan's peg to the US dollar and raised its exchange rate with the US dollar by two percent, which attracted the attention of the entire world. The project of Weng Fen, therefore, seems to be a mystical prophesy on this event in the ever-changing world. The eggs building high on top of each other are a sign of the present appreciation of RMB and the potential of further appreciation. The whole modern city in Weng's installation finds its foundation in a banknote that symbolizes the economic basis for development. Of course, the artist did not create the project to show his anticipation of the appreciation of the currency. It is the essential relationship between the country’s rapid shift to modernization and the political and economic situation home and abroad that he is emphasizing on. The current environment is obviously the best for artists to express their ideas about the issues they are concerned with through their work. The title of the project, “Building with eggs”, has its origin from an ancient Chinese idiom that date back to the Chunqiu Period (770-476 BC), “as precarious as a pile of eggs”, meaning “in an extremely dangerous situation.” It clearly indicates the artist’s concern over the reality. Maybe he intends to imply the possible crisis caused by the appreciation of the currency in his work, as uncertainty remains throughout the whole process of creation, but we don’t know the exact answer. China’s adoption of a more flexible exchange rate regime is a proof that the interaction between art and reality, both political and economical, is not only possible, but also practical, though the artists’ understanding of the reality usually tend to be perceptual.

编辑：admin