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FABULOUS
ENGAGEMENTS
recent work by
Guan Wei
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Exploring
the art of the west in the 19BOs (mostly through books and periodicals
while in Beijing, but more diversely after first visiting Tasman in
1988-89), Guan We confronted a welter of forms, motifs, textures,
gestures, styles. In a period of intense experimentation with languages
of art within an internationalist history of avant-garde developments
this century, the young Chinese artist faced compelling issues of
challenge, absorption and self-definition. He sought to adopt an
openness to many systems of representation without being engulfed by an
infinite clamour of images.
The paintings that
have ensued in recent years - marked by his coming to live and work, and
finally gaining residency In Australia constitute a body of work through
which Guan Wei has evolved a quite individual language. To mix imageries
borrowed from both Chinese and Maori culture: Guan Wei's recent works
not only evince the growth of a personal and idiosyncratic style, but
also constitute his own 'language nest'.
The nest is a conceit
he has discussed fondly on a number of occasions. In building and
inhabiting his nest of individually inflected subject-matter; Guan Wei
seeks to nurture his own visual dialect within certain self-imposed
limits, He cultivates a necessarily personal
territory of imagery that provides both vantage-point and refuge from
the surrounding world.
In retrospect
considering works produced both in China and Austral la, it can be seen
that the artist needed to find a way of dealing with the contemporary
world that both exceeded what he had inherited in Chinese tradition,
while on the other hand enabling him to reflect upon, engage and
redefine his own cultural history Indeed only through articulating his
social and philosophical Itineraries in a quite personal way could Guan Wei address the wider world of 'international art'. |
Treasure Hunt 1 1995 Acrylic on Canvas 127 x 49 cm |
