Artist Liu Jianhua’s (刘建华) latest gallery showing in Italy at Galleria Continua. “Unreal Scene” (2008) is a model of Shanghai made out of poker chips and dice. Photo by Cinghialino, Flickr Creative Commons. More from this and previous Liu works below. He’s currently a professor of sculpture at Shanghai University.
Image by Cinghialino.
Cinghialino @ Flickr.
Also by Cinghialino.
“Dream” (2006). Image by Annamatic3000 @ Flickr, who writes: “Liu’s work is strongly influenced by his experience working at the famed Jingdezhen Pottery workshop. He builds modern-day technological ephemera out of porcelain, then smashes them. The shards remind me of archeological sites where the ceramic pieces provide us with clues to how previous societies lived. In this installation at the Sculpture Centre, a former chapel, the porcelain pieces are gathered into the shape of a space shuttle while a projection of the Challenger disaster plays against the far wall. I think Liu seems to have a dim view of our doomed technological pursuits…”
Yiwu Survey (2008). Image by Meffi @ Flickr.
Can You Tell Me? (2007) Image by Juicyrai @ Flickr. The text in Chinese, English, French, German and Japanese reads: “Will the biggest case of financial swindle happen in Shanghai and will it give rise to the whole world economic depression?”
Yes I can, and no, looks like it wasn’t Shanghai that did it.