I chose internationally recognised 蔡國強 Cai Guo Qiang as the artist to create this tactile piece for. The scenario devised was that he is to showcase his 2008 'I Want to Believe' exhibition for the first time in Singapore. Famous for his gunpowder prints and retrospective animal art creations, I was inspired by how his works generate great interest, wonder and intellectual social commentary, despite using visually simple materials. Therefore I wanted to portray this deepened intellect and thinking through my poster, a prequel to what one may expect in his exhibition.
My toy animal poster at one glance may look like a normal line up of his chinese surname, but the meaning is revealed when one looks closer. The animals are connected by wire and lined up like a system. This represents our regimented society. In a way, this is a system where everyone is on the way to sucess. From afar, when one does not pore into the details, it looks like a neat and proper system where the creatures depend on each other. But when we look at several of the creatures, something starts to look wrong.
This creature, the leopard, represents the ones in society that are always beneath others. They try to rise up to society but are viewed as the unwanted underdogs.
This cub, represents those that trample on the built successes of others.
This smaller gorilla represents those that forget from whom they gain their sucesses from, overtaking the ones they should be owing themselves to without remorse.
This fierce lion shows how some of us twist the system to work for our advantage, crippling others not in our favour, but letting those in our favour ride with our sucess.
Likewise, we see here the old and the young...
... just staring on blindly on those that have been destroyed by the system, offering no help.
Of course, these are my interpretations of this creation. There are several ways one could interpret the placing of these animals, depending on your views of society. Such is the beauty of art from 蔡國強 Cai Guo Qiang and what I hope everyone could feel from the poster, enticing them to go to the exhibition.
Below are development shots of the creation process.
Thank you for viewing this project!
