MadeIn Gallery

Xu Zhen

Delinquent

Description/

Taking global public comics as the primary material, Delinquent consists in a combination of collaged, regrouped images and symbols gleaned from the Internet, constructing a chaotic image system with plural values. Through bending and folding, the Buddhist symbols breaks away from the plane, becoming the limbs of the “Panda” in three-dimensional space. At the same time, it also acts as load-bearing structural support of the sofa. The elements of “hand” and “foot” are derived from figures of classic cartoon characters, which form a new image after separating from its original cultural context. Delinquent combines contemporary visual, popular culture and traditional symbols, aiming to confuse the sculptural characteristic of artwork and the functionality of daily object, as well as to challenge the boundary in between.

Spray paint.

Xu Zhen

designer

XU ZHEN®’s provocative aesthetics relies on both conceptual and pop strategies. He first undertook behavioral and cultural experiments as an autonomous artist via controversial performances and videos. Ironically mirroring post-Mao China’s journey into consumerism, he has since transformed himself into a brand with the creation in 2009 of his art corporation MadeIn Company. The works “produced by MadeIn Company” in his name mainly consist of sculptures, paintings and installations. They represent, often monumentally, incongruous clashes between iconographies pertaining to distant cultures, civilizations, and ages. From the improbable encounter between Japanese bondage and voodoo fetishes, to Buddha statues forcing themselves into duplicates of Greco-Roman gods, the collision between cultural symbols allows him to subtly touch upon the various power struggles of human history. Embodying the truly violent nature of cultural hybridization, XU ZHEN®’s composite art further questions the loss of meaning and context induced by the precipitation of globalization in the digital era.