Author: CHEN ZHEN 陈箴

Size: 110×170×305cm

Signed and dated: Made in 1991

Estimate: Estimate Upon Request

Final Price: unsold

EXHIBITED
1991 Parcours Privé，A Private Garden，Paris
2005 ChenZhen - Transexperiences，Galleria Continua，Beijing
NOTICE
The work is to be handled and claimed in Hong Kong，China. Please contact Beijing Poly Auction Modern and Contemporary Department Staff for further details.
The artists are the most powerful，because we participate in the ‘game’，we know the rules and we know how to overcome them. But we have to be crazy or psychotic. The sick ones often have the clearest minds.
Chen Zhen was born in 1955 to a family of doctors in Shanghai，China. In 2000，Chen suffered from autoimmune hemolytic anemia and died at age 45. Chen was one of the pioneering installation artists from China，although his career was cut short by disease，Chen had achieved international fame by the time he died. The meticulous personality and unique life experience made him think profoundly about the value system of life and time. Chen’s concerns on western philosophy，feng shui，and Taoism were subtly reflected in his works. His mature work，created in the last decade of his life，explored“synergy”between different cultural and political environments. He is also known for using furniture and antique Chinese materials in his constructions. His large-scale works，exploring the topics of health and homeland，were well received globally.
“ While being an artist，becoming a doctor has always been my dream. The purpose of art creation is to make one get back on their feet，evaluate oneself，so to eventually observe the entire world”. This is how Zhen Chen concludes his brief art career in depth，which also assists us in understanding his artwork. As one of the most important activists in “85 wave”，an art nouveau took place from 1985 to 1989 in China，and one of the very few high-profile outstanding Chinese artists globally，we can observe a 3-dimensional composition in Chen：going through the Cultural Revolution，this experience allows him to get out of his comfort zone and work on creating modern art，focusing on expressing opinions and realizing installation in the 80s； He went to France all by himself，and this makes him trap in a dilemma between Eastern and Western culture； Fighting with disease and illness for more than 30 years，he developed a sense of understanding between soul and flesh，revealing the mystery of human body in his art work. All these three understandings can be observed in his art pieces created throughout his life，yet all different based on his life experience during the period.
Chen was born in Shanghai and his parents are both chemistry professors. Hence，it is safe to say that his family background exerts an edifying influence on his deep understanding and curiosity in politics，philosophy and culture. Years later，in his teenager years，he was sent to countryside in China to be re-educated，only coming back to urban area after the end of Cultural Revolution. He then went to Arts and Crafts College in Shanghai to study stage and decorative art. This is when he started doubting the political situation of the time.
Until the 80s，Chen，together with a few of youth artists in Shanghai，including Guoqiang Cai，Wenda Gu and Yongping Huang，making use of Chinese traditional way of thinking，culture and art，with the purpose of changing the art environment in China，gave a vigorous boost to the early stage of avant-garde. Therefore，in his artwork during the early 80s，Chen focused on using modern abstract art form to deliver information on the key of Chinese philosophy，“spirit” and “energy”. This is also when Chen reveals himself in the history of Chinese contemporary art.
In 1986，Chen，migrated to Paris，started his art creation in installation art with the influence of Postmodernism evolved in the European contemporary art. Since industrialization has been very advanced in Europe of the time，mass production resulted in over supply and in turn came symbolized consuming behavior. This has greatly impacted Chen，who was only experienced in planned economy in China. This drove him to start creating art with daily consumer goods，such as table，chair，flush toilet，bed and mattress，aiming to criticize consumerism，exploring the widened gap between human and nature due to industrialization.
Nature and Artificial Products – Rename：A Fresh Flower on a Heap of Cow-dung，created in 1991，was one typical artwork of Chen during that time period. Chen planted 1400 bright red plastic roses in 2-cubic-meter cow dung，like a monument erected in the middle of exhibition hall. Cow dung，as a nature’s creation，is rejected by human because of its unpleasant appearance and intense smell，despite the fact of being “genuine”，“natural” and working as a fertilizer. On the contrary，bright artificial roses are popular among people，ignoring its “fake” and “useless” nature. This implies that mass production has distant human from nature，forgetting the true meaning of inner self. Based on this，Zhen Chen and the practice of neorealism in France in the 80s seem to achieve the same goal with different means. His primary purpose of creating art is to detangle the complicated relationship between desire，object and nature. Just like what Chen has pointed out in his work，“ The desire of human brings the overflow of products，and such overflow of products violates nature. Nature，losing its equilibrium，would take revenge on human. This is a vicious circle. ”
In 1980，Chen，at his age of 25，was diagnosed with an incurable blood disease，erythronoclastic anemia. Since then，this experience and attention to “body” became the eternal theme in Chen’s art creation，continuously expanding such theme to “life”. Using that as the major theme，Chen created in two directions，one being the attention to his physical status and his inner organ，another being the thirst of surpassing sickness. It pushes him to use multiple ready-made objects to directly display the “inner scenery” in his work，constructing a dialogue between physical body and spiritual state. At the same time，drawing from Chinese ancient philosophy，Buddhism，Taoism and basic theories of Chinese medicine，he explores human’s subconscious in life，detachment from reality，and sublimation. Therefore，Chen’s later works are more difficult to be comprehended and more personal，but majority of his later works are focusing on him fighting with death in terms of both philosophical level and physical level.
Reproduction was created by Chen in 1999 approaching the end of his life，implied his strong thirst to surpass sickness. Although he had to turn down many invitations to various important exhibitions due to his sickness，he never gave up creating more arts. A scraped car painted in black all over seems to be a metaphor for the chaos of the origin of life. Thousands of identical black toy cars are reproduced from the scars of the black scraped car，implying the infinity of life. This is also a subtle metaphor of his wish for “coming back to life” and “birth and rebirth”. He made use of the personification of objects and second nature to explain the cycle of birth and death in Zen，so to achieve a sense of self-recovery. This also demonstrates his understanding of art of that time – “my body is my lab，art is my medication.”
Maybe we can think in this way，each and every artwork of Chen’s seems to use objects to construct a spiritual space，and in spiritual space，it is his multi-experience that leads the way. Such multi-experience is not only reflected in the connection between objects and the main body，but also the reflection of inner self and the external society. It is safe to say，these two things are not isolated from one another，but inter-related. It is the reflection of reality，physical experience and the anxiety about life.