Western Gods and Goddesses, omnipresent as décor in the new Chinese city, crosses paths with mass-abandoned Buddhas masquerading as authentic signifiers of what may in fact be the tired remains of cultural tradition. Do these forms carry any meaning outside of their marketability and token spirituality? Does the schizophrenic, iconographic overload of our late-capitalist, globalized society have a place for faith? Or is our faith locked up in the plastic promises of material consumption and digital gadgetry? Has rationality ruled supreme as grid cities, cellular devices and credit cards substitute the idols and mysticism of our distant past? In his first exhibition in over three years Hu Xiangcheng’s “Itinerant Deities” probes the conundrum of contemporary belief systems by transforming the gallery through large scale installation, painting and photography works.
After Graduating the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1977 Hu Xiangcheng spent time living in Tibet, Japan and Africa. His painting and installation works have been exhibited internationally at The Shanghai Biennial; The International Sculpture and Installation Exhibition in Venice, Italy; The Yokohama Triennial in Japan, and San Paulo Architecture Biennial in Brazil, etc. Hu’s work also extends to endeavors for the preservation of traditional culture such as the Yellow BOX project in Shanghai, and a reconstructed village located in Jing Ze Town of Qingpu District both which involve traditional Chinese architecture, space, utensils, and rituals. In his life and work Hu has demonstrated that a contemporary artist should not merely address social issues, but more actively look for solutions.
Regarding “Itinerant Deities”
by Hu Xiangcheng
In Western museums, we easily find religious icons from all over the world collected as exquisite objects. However, these exotic deities seldom appear in Western architecture, or in daily life. On the other hand, tons of abandoned Chinese Buddhas that were respected and awed in the past can now be bought in flea markets throughout China today. Atheism is pervasive; the deities have left their ancestral homes. Poetic life gives way to material needs. Today in China reprodutions of Western Gods and Goddesses are placed in real estate projects with the intention of advertising instead of meeting spiritual needs. Since the beginning of humanity, human beings woke up each day and attributed the unknown to gods. The responsibilities that deities used to take now fall onto the shoulders of humans. But I wonder if we humans can arrange life and death, happiness and sorrow so well?
While we strive to control the world, it ultimately dominates us. When humans move away from their original essence and believe that they can make everything possible, we become boxed in the matrix of the “square” - a supra rational invention, but something that doesn’t exist in the natural world. The more that human civilization develops, the more squares appear. From the certification of birth to the documentation of death, from urban design, computer technology and project programming, squares accompany and even control our lives. The “square” has its logical reason for being invented, this we can learn from the Bauhaus; therefore it is allowed to survive. If aliens exist, the “square” will also control and dominate them.
