Chinese artist Ma Jung poetically juxtaposes imagery from traditional Chinese paintings with contemporary objects, like computers and soda bottles, in these fascinating porcelain sculptures.
My generation was growing up while China was adopting the reform and open-the-door policy. I remember when I was young that after sunset neighbors with their families would gather to sit on a small bench to be fascinated by staring at a 9-inch black and white television. Conversely, the only way Chinese people can realize the concept of “globalization” was through television. Hence, along with radio, answering machine, automobiles and so on western products unceasingly arrived and China started a modernization process. These porcelain prototypes that I have created are very much the representations of my rumination.
The contrast between the traditional Chinese imagery on the surface of objects that represent Western culture seems to concisely articulate the artist’s mixed feeling about the ways that the world is changing.
Culture needs to be forgiving. When cultures by other nationalities enter they do not get rejected but instead become absorbed and then understood. I feel it is a way of looking at the world, and only if more people would consider this question it would possibly help protect these traditional articles and thereafter find a more sensible way to make our lives better.
[via Naj me tender]
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