We are living in a 'wrapped society', a society that is bizarre and full of obscurities. This modern life, with its emphasis on materiality and commerciality, stimulates and lures the public to blindly consume and be entertained - producing a social environment that lacks intellectual and rational life.
How did we get here? What kind of history helped from our present state? To reflect on the present does not mean going back to a world of pure spiritual emptiness but a need for a rational understanding of history and the relation of reality to ourselves, and if we are to exit this wrongful path we need to understand and correct ourselves.
The works in this show are composed of paintings from recent series and my constant explorations in the issues of man and nature, history and reality, religion and civilization, the cultural contrasts and fusions of the East and West, and social psychology of contradiction.
Sister No.1, 2010, 137.2 x 137.2cm, oil on linen
The picture comes from internet, it shows women in early 20th century China. The pictures haven been altered and enhanced to recreate a very isolated feeling, a world that's self-admired, traditional, and closed, just like China at the time.
Three inch golden lotus, 2010, 111.8 x 91.4cm, oil on canvas
Bound feet were considered intensely erotic. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed forty-eight different ways of playing with women's bound feet. Some men preferred never to see a woman's bound feet, so they were always concealed within tiny "lotus shoes". If you remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed for them, the erotic effect was a function of the lotus gait, the tiny steps and swaying walk of a woman whose feet had been bound.
Wrap up No.2, 2007 - 2010, 121.9 x 91.4 cm, oil on linen
Secret, 2007 - 2010, 121.9 x 91.4cm, oil on linen
A pair of embroidered little shoes placed on an opened book; the illustration on that page presents a peeking young maid hiding behind the screen. Beautifully embroidered shoes suggest sex in the feudal eras, where “male authority” driven society became a tradition. Women did not have rights; they are subordinate characters of marriage and sex. Because of these depressions, they form a devious aesthetic appeal. The sexual demands of bound feet women in feudal periods became their illusionary world.
Book Tower, 2007, 121.9 x 91.4cm, oil on linen
© Du Chonggang, 2010