Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bai Yiluo and Movana Chen at the Opposite House hotel in Beijing

Although showing in the lobby of a hotel, which seems odd for a mixed media installation of this type, this body of work was able to demand attention and importance while fittingly incorporating itself with the sleek open design of the atrium.

By using untraditional art materials, such as supermarket catalogue pages and Chinese passport photos, both artists were able to make interesting comments on identity and our compulsive desire to consume.  The Body Container pieces were especially impressive.  By deconstructing the supermarket advertisement pages to resemble coiled metal, Movana Chen was able to build an armored body suit that devours the human bodies’ figure.  In our relentless desire to consume, at the end of the day, it is the product that actually consumes our life.  Bai Yiluo’s Camouflage Jackets express a very similar idea that specifically makes the statement that we are what surround ourselves with. 

     

No comments: