Guo Jian: Nothing About Erotic but Playboy
When I was writing a weekly column for the newspapers it would have been impossible to discuss a show for which I’d acted as curator. This was my own belief, and I never tested the boundaries. Now there’s nothing preventing me from speaking about an artist I’ve known for almost 30 years, who has an extraordinary life story and continues to kick against the pricks - to borrow a phrase made famous by Jesus Christ (Acts 9:5).
Jesus was identifying himself to Saul – later St. Paul – as a persecuted figure. Guo Jian has endured his share of persecution in China for his uncompromising, satirical artworks, although he has been more fortunate than others who criticised the system and found themselves languishing for years in a prison cell.
As the Chinese government has reverted to a more hard-line stance on political comment, most artists have wisely opted to rein in their rebellious tendencies. Painters who once specialised in ferocious satires on communism and consumerism, are today more likely to be producing landscapes. Who could blame them? Anybody who knows the first thing about China understands there is no percentage in adopting a mindless, belligerent stance – which is where figures such as Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton were so palpably clueless, and why Donald Trump’s attempt to bully the Chinese with massive tariffs is already collapsing in humiliating fashion. In the face of such all-encompassing power - in a country where there is now one surveillance camera for every two citizens - discretion seems a more viable option than public dissent.