Installation view of “A Composite Leviathan: 12 Emerging Artists from China,” 2019, at Luhring Augustine Bushwick.
Besides their status as rising Chinese artists, neither immediate themes nor a single medium united those included in “A Composite Leviathan: 12 Emerging Artists from China,” staged at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick gallery. Befitting its title, the show was characterized by variety, with artworks ranging from figural to abstract, and grappling with both sociopolitical and purely formal concerns.
The show’s namesake, Yang Jian’s A Composite Leviathan (2018), commanded from the center of the first-floor gallery, the massive mutant of rusted rebar and metal towering over nearby works. Plates depicting parts of real and mythical creatures—horns, claws, a human torso—stick to Leviathan’s gnarled wire infrastructure, which is roughly shaped into the head of a dragon. The creature is a sign of power in Chinese mythology, though Yang’s one looks like it has fallen on hard times, and not as mighty as the references conjured by its name: Jewish mythology’s multi-headed sea monster epitomizing God’s power to create, and Thomas Hobbes’ foundational book arguing for absolute rule. By using lead scraps taken from various public parks for the structure’s spotty coating, Yang reinforces the composite aspect of the work. In effect, Leviathan’s shabby appearance reveals the nature of China’s sovereignty; it isn’t monolithic but measured, with the government permitting spaces of limited freedom while extending repression elsewhere.
Read full article at artasiapacific.com
