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SHEN Yuan, <Waterbed>, Mixed media, 59.69x198.12x88.9cm, 1989 © artist
[China] SHEN Yuan Waterbed
As a participant of “Xiamen Dada” during the ’85 Art New Wave Movement, Shen Yuan aims to expand the boundaries of artistic expression, to exceed the vernaculars of painting and sculpture and to establish a bridge between art and life. She first unveiled the Water Bed (1989), portraying the artist’s state of existence and political circumstances based on personal analysis and critique of a specific time, at the China Avant-Garde Exhibition. Shen filled water in plastic bag and sealed living fishes in. She placed this plastic bag on a makeshift military metal bed frame, and named Waterbed. “Fish” has the double meaning in China to signify wealth and leisure. Yet, the fish that eventually died on the “water bed” translates the work into an image of death and process of decay, yet the sensual experience has been sealed like a letter, yet every image in this process embodies multiple meanings and implications. In 1990s, Shen immigrated to Paris, and her experiences of cultural clashes as an immigrant became her new point of artistic jobs. Drawing creative inspirations from immigration culture and the clash between East and West in the everyday, Shen presents her thoughts on the dialogue of multiple cultures and their relationship through delicate emotive drives and her sensitivity in the materials. |
