Liu Xiao Xian: From East to West

Born in China and raised during the Cultural Revolution, the artist’s provocative large-scale digital photography questions notions of cultural identity and home.

Liu Xiao Xian left Beijing for Sydney 20 years ago after the trauma of Tiananmen Square.

In the current climate between China and Australia, RMIT Gallery Director Suzanne Davies said it was important for a public gallery to hold an exhibition of Liu Xiao Xian’s work.

The examples of his work that stood out to me were:

“Home Rome 2003” - An art work in which a Chinese family is placed. The family is in front of a board with a Chinese style mural against the backdrop of Rome, Italy.

What this particular art work communicated to me was that, no matter where you go in life, you take your race, culture and identity with you. It also conveyed to me that this is not something to be ashamed of. I drew this conclusion from the way the family were smiling in the photo.
The case was very similar in the “Home Sydney 2003” piece.

“Game Set 1 2009” - Piece which its simple outlay and message. Having three demesnial large scale board, with Chinese checkers on one side and chess on the other. These where done in ceramic and coated in a turquoise/aqua colour (my favourite colour).

This art work demonstrated to me, the sheer contrast of, in essence the same game. One being played in the Chinese culture and the other being played in wester culture. The contrast was seen right through from the cultures they came from to the forms they took.

On one side you had the simplistic “checkers” and on the other you had complex depictions of a horse and castles.

“The Way We Eat” - Would have to be the stand out for me, its demonstration just how different the two cultures are. Rendered and displayed in much the same manner as the “Game Set 1 2009” piece. This particular art piece however is broken up into two sections, on one side there is a complete vintage cutlery set and on other side and a set of chop sticks, all are ceramic and coated in the same turquoise as “Game Set 1 2009”.

“The Way We Eat” looks at how different the implements used to eat are in each of the cultures. The westerner side shows the complex hirachey and formality of westerner/English etiquette.

On the other hand Chop Sticks is simple proficient and has a one size fits all approach. A has very no frills, no nonsense mode of eating.

“Great Wall Of China” - This is a unique art piece in that it encapsulates a vast space in a small room. Liu Xiao Xian did this by literally taking thousands and thousands of photos from top to bottom of the back of one of china’s biggest and oldest ceramic plate factories. At the back of this particular factory there are thousands of plates stacked up meters high. The photos Liu Xiao Xian took have been arranged to give a three dimensional recreation of what the site looked like.

The meaning of this rendition, I believe (Unfortunately I did not get to read the plaque for art work, so forgive me if I’m off the mark completely) that it represents how mas production has effected china’s reputation on the world’s scene. In that a lot of the products that come out of there have a short (or in some cases very short) planned obsolescence, and are easily accessible price wise to most product makers.

This is symbolised by the sheer number of plates chocking the otherwise green surroundings. Detracting from what might have been a luscious and green area.

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The artwork itself didn’t amaze me, but I appreciated it, non the less. In that I appreciated the ideas and principals behind the work, how it contrasted so greatly to each other, and the element that were contrasted where often two very different way of going about the same thing.


^^^
I think i might have gone OTT again...