photo: KIOKU Keizo
Propagator in the Darkness
| Artist | QIU Zhijie |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
| Material/ Technique | lithography printed on STPI handmade paper with screen printed acrylic sheet |
| Size/ Duration | H128 × W102.5cm |
| Copyright Notice | © QIU Zhijie |
| Year of acquisition/ donation | 2017（作品購入年月日：2017/03/31） |
| Description | Born in Fujian, China in 1969. Lives and works in Beijing. Qiu Zhijie has played an important role in Chinese conceptual art and performance art since the mid 1990s. He has participated in group exhibitions at P.S.1 (New York), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and ICA London and won international acclaim at the 25th São Paulo Biennial. As well as art, he is also heavily involved in broad-reach media, including curation and magazine editing. As an artist who was born in the Mao Zedong era and grew up in the Deng Xiaoping era, Qiu produces work that deals with real life in his own country in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, including the turmoil caused by the strains of growth arising from the opening of the economy and the modernization that could be called a reaction to it. The five works in the museum’s collection are all part of the “Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge Project” series dealing with the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge over the Yangtze River. An important public structure in China, this bridge symbolizes the Mao Zedong era and its rapid advancement of modernization. But it also symbolizes the reality of the large number of people who commit suicide by leaping from the bridge due to the strains of an overheated market-driven economy and the disparities arising from differences between rural and urban households. "Where is the capital of Madagascar?" is a work based on social practice in the form of Qiu’s participation in voluntary suicide prevention activities and his efforts to dissuade people from committing suicide by asking them seemingly irrelevant questions. While it relies on classic techniques such as print and collage, in terms of content it addresses the question of whether art serves a purpose in the real world. "Ataractic of Zhuang Zi", which depicts Zhuang Zi’s dream; "The Draft of Revolution", which is based on a sculpture on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge; "Propagator in the Darkness", which evokes the revolutionary era; and "Capital: Waiting for the Naissance of the Dragon", which deals with a giant monument from the Ming dynasty in a suburb of Nanjing are all lithographs whose rich expression down to the smallest detail also suggests a deep understanding of technique. |
NOTES
This Collection Data page contains the works and materials in the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as of April 1, 2018.
Artists are listed alphabetically by artist’s surname.
Works and materials by the same artists are listed according to the date of the work in principle.
Works whose dates are unidentified are listed at the end of each item. Some works are not listed according to the date of work due to their relations.
The data of works and materials are listed in order of title, production year, material/technique/form, dimensions, donor’s name, copyright holder and credit for photograph.
Dimensions are given by height (H) x width (W) in centimeters for plane work, and height (H) x width (W) x depth (D) in cm for 3-D work. Diameter (Ø) is used for circular work.
For the name of country or city, the name currently used in English is listed in principle.