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Lot Essay
Temporary Home series is Chen Yujun's attempt to demonstrate how changes in an individual and the environment can introduce tremendous conflict. Having experienced the impact of the Chinese economic reform in 1978 and China’s acceptance into the World Trade Organisation, Chen has experienced first-hand how globalisation has greatly influenced indigenous culture-- especially in the artist's hometown of Fuzhou. Chen Yujun explained this phenomenon in an article proclaiming, “Generally speaking, it can be considered as a sense of home-sickness. But according to our ideology, it is not only a reflection on modernity, it is also a declaration of the uniqueness of the culture of the South-Eastern coast through our art.”
Temporary Home No. 121209 (Lot 120) vividly depicts an interior space. The furniture and pinstripe wallpaper in the scene suggest a typical private abode in the style of the southern coastal region. During the period of migration across the Southern Seas in Chinese history, the indigenous culture of South-East Asia was substantially influenced. Such peculiarities compel the artist to investigate the architecture and space of this culture within his work. Mosaics, squares, trapezoids, and rectangles are extensively used in this composition. The sole oval painting breaks-up the grid-like configuration and energises the picture with tension, thus achieving a temporary state of spontaneously and recklessness. It urges us to question the identity of the individual whose home this is: is home the foreign land where one grew up or is it the native land where one feels strangely out of place?
Temporary Home No. 121209 (Lot 120) vividly depicts an interior space. The furniture and pinstripe wallpaper in the scene suggest a typical private abode in the style of the southern coastal region. During the period of migration across the Southern Seas in Chinese history, the indigenous culture of South-East Asia was substantially influenced. Such peculiarities compel the artist to investigate the architecture and space of this culture within his work. Mosaics, squares, trapezoids, and rectangles are extensively used in this composition. The sole oval painting breaks-up the grid-like configuration and energises the picture with tension, thus achieving a temporary state of spontaneously and recklessness. It urges us to question the identity of the individual whose home this is: is home the foreign land where one grew up or is it the native land where one feels strangely out of place?