New At the UCCA: Twisted Clowns, Twisted Roots

No, it’s not the premise of some second-rate horror film, but the common tie between two first-rate, but vastly different, exhibits that opened at the UCCA on Saturday (both are now open to the public until May 27): Jennifer Wen Ma's "Hanging Gardens in Ink" and art group Guest's "Standing on the Shoulder of Little Clowns." Here's what we thought ...

Let’s start, appropriately, at the root. And the branches. And the leaves. All that, and not a hint of green in sight.
Artist Jennifer Wen Ma painted a staggering mass of foliage midnight black using Chinese ink, as if it were about to bloom into some sort of leafy calligraphy by morning.

She also collected and wove every twig together. At twenty meters long, eight meters high and three meters wide, this is no small feat. Ma fittingly dubbed it “Hanging Garden in Ink,” before installing it in the art center’s exposed nave.

Between her dramatic approach and the project’s ambitious size, even the most inexperienced of art viewers can’t miss the originality of Ma’s work.

Now for the clowns. Ma’s hanging garden succeeds as a consistent, hulking, deep dark mass. But right around the corner lies an equally bizarre – and much more colorful – alternative.

“Standing on the Shoulders of Little Clowns,” is a collaboration between five budding young Chinese artists – Li Ming, Lin Ke, Lu Pingyuan, Xu Qu, and Zhao Yao. Calling themselves Guest, the quirky quintet crafted a variety works that don’t quite live up to the three ring circus their exhibit’s title implies.

Half of the show is gimmicky, including a hanging fuzzy box and a few real life costumed clowns. The more successful works include a top-hatted mannequin with a face replaced by cloudy skyscape, a pale white bird fluttering from his heavenly disposition.

Next to him, a fountain’s base consists of birds, far stonier than the white feathered fowl flapping away from the air-headed mannequin. The latter creatures are firmly perched, one covered with sarcastic graffiti that reads, “Don’t look.”

Gimmicks aside, "Standing" makes for visuals as fun as Ma's were dramatic. For more eye candy from these two new exhibits, check out our gallery here.

UCCA also hoped to unveil a third exhibit this week, “Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker.” It will be temporarily delayed (due to some shipping issues that kept the pictures from being delivered on time). We’ll keep you updated on that exhibit’s new start date, and before it opens we’ll feature a Q&A with one of the famed magazine’s former editors. For now, we can tell you that the series of photographs include stark celebrity portraits of Yao Ming and David Lynch, along with intimate everyday shots of Russian market vendors and Chinese child labourers-turned-professional-forgers. Stay tuned.

UCCA will host both the “Standing on the Shoulders of Little Clowns,” and “Hanging Garden In Ink,” exhibits until May 27. For more information, visit ucca.org.cn.

Photos: Kyle Mullin