Yue Minjun is one of the key figures of the Chinese avant-garde, foremost as a painter of the Cynical Realism movement, which emerged out of the disillusionment after the crushed demonstrations of 1989. Flexible Latitude (2010) is a huge Yue Minjun figure in the posture of the classical kowtow: kneeling and bowing so low that one’s head touches the ground, the highest sign of reverence and submission, may it be for one’s elderly ancestors, superiors or the emperor. Here we are confronted with a physical giant, but yet he is shown in a pose of lackeying and bootlicking, seemingly an image of making a fool of oneself.

Wenda Gu got international recognition with his ambitious United Nations global art project (1993-2004), which consists of monumental installations featuring large panels made of human hair collected from around the world and arranged to form pseudo characters, meaningless letters and other altered scripts. By creating ‘national structures’ made up from hair of one location and ‘transnational structures’ using hair from various countries the artist intends to address different topics from cultural specific issues to universal issues of identity as well as common human experience in the era of globalization. Another imposing output of a long enduring artistic venture, Forest of Stone Steles – Retranslation & Rewriting of Tang Poetry (1993-2005), reflects in the artist’s own words ‘the changing world of cultural import and export, cultural assimilation and alienation from each other, and consumation of one culture by another.’ By searching to link and bridge the old and the new, East and West, history and past, present and future he hopes to transcend times, nations and cultures.

Wang Jin’s body of work – performances, photography, sculpture – reflects his spirit of awareness and through evocative images it comments on the vacuous state in today’s Chinese society. The large-scale sculptural objects all named WANG (from 2007 onwards) started out with the artist’s own backbone which he enlarged, in line with earlier works such as My Bones and My Tooth (2000). These huge individual vertebras which are not fully anatomically precise both appeal with their abstractness and impress with their monumentality, evoking connotations of strength, courageousness and determination.

Wan Liya has especially developed an interest in the material of ceramics and porcelain. The National Treasure (2011), on display at this exhibition is based on a true story. In the year 2002 a rare ancient Chinese vase from the Yongzheng period (1723-1735) was sold for 5.3 Million US-Dollar at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. This vase belonged to the Chairman of the Council of American Ambassadors, who inherited it from his mother. It had been in his family’s possession for decades, though without knowledge of its high historical value they had been using it as a lamp stand. This is actually not the only case of an ancient vase being converted into a household item; others have for example been turned into an umbrella stand. Wan Liya is fascinated with this kind of cultural misconceptions or reinterpretations. In his work he examines questions about definition of value in a different cultural context.

Sui Jianguo is among the most highly respected sculptors in China today. In his earlier years he created for example the well-known piece Earthly Force (1990): huge boulders entwined in nets made from steel ropes. The sculptures are a vivid metaphor for emotional oppression, manifesting the prevailing frame of mind following the suppression of the upheavals in 1989. One of his major iconic works is the Mao suit or Legacy Mantle series (1997-2002). These freestanding, almost monumental jackets, the so-called uniform of the Maoist era, witty and incisive, raise a lot of questions about China and its people in a time of transition. Sui Jianguo has also created Greco-Roman sculptures clad in Mao jackets, exploring relations between the West and China. The installation The Slant Paradise (2008) is a very special encounter between the artist and The Netherlands and also bears features of his exploration of questions concerning time and space.