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The line between art and fairy tale
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Contemporary artist Chen Dongfan found inspiration from the “Emperor’s Wardrobe” fairy tale for his latest solo exhibition.
“Child Wants To Be A King, Not An Artist,” held at Inna’s Contemporary Art Space, showcases the works he created since moving to New York last year. A total of 157 pieces are catalogued in six series: “Emperor’s Wardrobe”, “Forgotten Letters”, “Grandness of Court”, “Three Rogues”, “His High Canopy”, and “Voice of Innocence”.
The artist did not set out to reproduce the fairy tale, but believes there are some coincidences between the story and his works.
“We choose the story for its contrast between solemnity and irony,” says Li Shengzhao, the main curator.
Chen’s works are abstract, imaginative, and full of bold color contrasts. Highly saturated hues of yellow, blue, green and red are used. All works are on paper.
Chen says he is referring to himself as the “artist” in “Child Wants To Be A King, Not An Artist.” He says a German artist who he is friends with once said: “An artist does not need to be a king, an artist is a hero.”
The styles of the six series vary. The large pieces in the “Emperor’s Wardrobe” have a black background with rose colored highlights. “His High Canopy” series feature lots of brightly colored lumps with clear rims and in odd shapes. The “Grandness of Court” series features messy pencil sketches and distorted human body parts.
“Three Rogues” feature three paintings on rice paper that hang in the air. One rogue looks like the joker on a playing card, one is a combination of swirling and protruding shapes, and the other is simply two clumps backed by colorful stripes.
“Voice of Innocence” is an installation of several rice-paper works arranged in a corner. Some works look like the bellows of accordions.
Patches are seen on his rice-paper works because “the paper is fragile, yet I modify a lot,” says Chen. “Sometimes when I am annoyed at the constant modification, I put the painting aside for months, and then repaint when I am mollified.”
He keeps the patches, which allows viewers to see how the piece was created over time.
The “Forgotten Letters” consists of 119 paintings on Chinese traditional letter paper, which is beige, thin, and porous. Some are portraits, some are plants or animals and some are so abstract that each viewer will likely see different things.
They are like letters Chen wrote about his thoughts and feelings about life in New York.
To really see what Chen has created, it takes about an hour to look at them even though they are on the same wall.
“When I look at the wall I feel like I am staring into a starry sky,” he says. “Even if I gaze at one letter, another letter sparks different memories.”
Date: Through August 30 (closed on Monday and Tuesday)
Time: 12pm-5pm
Address: Block 12, 139 Liuhe Road, Hangzhou
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