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Lot Essay
Conversation with Matisse sees the deconstruction and recomposition of Matisse's iconic Dancers II through multiple layers of collaged material, offering a new reconstructed level of meaning and providing a critical discourse on the notions of culture between the East and the West.
Heavily inspired by Robert Rauschenberg and his practice, each fragment of Song's collage carries in itself a message which contributes to the interpretation of the work as a whole. Tribal images are juxtaposed with 15th Century religious icons, which are in turn contrasted with Ancient Egypt, Ancient Chinese and Islamic imagery within each of the figures, fittingly dancing on a vivid red terrain of assorted contemporary cultural icons, including the original Matisse work in question, against the iridescent blue-green backdrop of traditional Chinese landscape artwork. The burning of the edges of the collage fragments, a practice inspired by the burning of Song's studio in the early 1990's, adds an aura of history as though these pieces of information have been found destroyed, and pieced together in an effort to reconstruct a reality.
Rising from the ashes, these compiled images, in parallel with a re-interpretation of such a culturally charged image, can be construed as the rebirth of not only Xue Song's art, but of a civilisation, a clear observation and assessment of China, post-Mao.
Heavily inspired by Robert Rauschenberg and his practice, each fragment of Song's collage carries in itself a message which contributes to the interpretation of the work as a whole. Tribal images are juxtaposed with 15th Century religious icons, which are in turn contrasted with Ancient Egypt, Ancient Chinese and Islamic imagery within each of the figures, fittingly dancing on a vivid red terrain of assorted contemporary cultural icons, including the original Matisse work in question, against the iridescent blue-green backdrop of traditional Chinese landscape artwork. The burning of the edges of the collage fragments, a practice inspired by the burning of Song's studio in the early 1990's, adds an aura of history as though these pieces of information have been found destroyed, and pieced together in an effort to reconstruct a reality.
Rising from the ashes, these compiled images, in parallel with a re-interpretation of such a culturally charged image, can be construed as the rebirth of not only Xue Song's art, but of a civilisation, a clear observation and assessment of China, post-Mao.