firstsite contemporary art colchester

1 July – 12 August 2006
Chen Shaofeng

Dialogue with the peasants of the Tiangongsi Villages.

In the isolated and remote villages of rural China breathtaking portrait artist Chen Shaofeng has been working on a masterpiece.

His art has been to paint scores of Chinese villagers – while they in turn paint him.

The exercise is a study of the relationship between the painter and the painted. But when presented the over all effect is far more than that.

Hundreds of the portraits have been produced and are presented en mass – hundreds of pictures side by side with one another. The portrait of the villager next to the villager’s portrait of the artist.

The effect is to reiterate the relationship between the two painters while at the same time throwing into stark relief the views of two utterly differing worlds.

Chen’s sober and traditional, well trained images are compared to the coarsely drawn portraits depicting Chen.

More isolated that ever as their country’s urban centres march to modernity, the Chinese villagers show part of their soul – their paintings giving the villagers a voice.

Crucial to this is the point that the villagers paint Chen as they saw him.

Taken as a whole the variety of the portraits of Chen – of one person - are utterly fascinating.

Common traits between them point to attitudes and beliefs held by the villagers – and perhaps lacking from the outside world.

“What Chen aims at is as much social reportage as it is painting; in fact, what fascinates him more that anything else is the non-art aspect of a project like this.

“While being simple, Chen Shaofeng’s concept is at the same time a stroke of Genius.”

Dr Stephan Van Der Schulenburg.

Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt.

	Chen Shaofeng, Dialogue with the peasants of Tiangongsi villages 1 July – 12 August 2006 Chen Shaofeng Dialogue with the peasants of the Tiangongsi Villages. In the isolated and remote villages of rural China breathtaking portrait artist Chen Shaofeng has been working on a masterpiece. His art has been to paint scores of Chinese villagers – while they in turn paint him. The exercise is a study of the relationship between the painter and the painted. But when presented the over all effect is far more than that. Hundreds of the portraits have been produced and are presented en mass – hundreds of pictures side by side with one another. The portrait of the villager next to the villager’s portrait of the artist. The effect is to reiterate the relationship between the two painters while at the same time throwing into stark relief the views of two utterly differing worlds. Chen’s sober and traditional, well trained images are compared to the coarsely drawn portraits depicting Chen. More isolated that ever as their country’s urban centres march to modernity, the Chinese villagers show part of their soul – their paintings giving the villagers a voice. Crucial to this is the point that the villagers paint Chen as they saw him. Taken as a whole the variety of the portraits of Chen – of one person - are utterly fascinating. Common traits between them point to attitudes and beliefs held by the villagers – and perhaps lacking from the outside world. “What Chen aims at is as much social reportage as it is painting; in fact, what fascinates him more that anything else is the non-art aspect of a project like this. “While being simple, Chen Shaofeng’s concept is at the same time a stroke of Genius.” Dr Stephan Van Der Schulenburg. Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt.