Artist Sheng Qi is famous for cutting off his left pinky finger two decades ago and burying it in a flowerpot in a grotesque act of performance art. Though not as viscerally shocking, “Power of the People,” a solo exhibition of Sheng’s recent acrylic paintings at F2 gallery, is no less haunting or corporeal. It re-positions him as a practitioner of what is perhaps a more challenging, and certainly more traditional, medium.
“My work is not really artistic, I’m just documenting,” Sheng explains when asked about the conceptual and thematic significance of his current work. Describing himself as “old-fashioned,” he argues his painting is best positioned as part of the historical record, rather than the contemporary art canon.
This may be true, as the work strives less for sophistication and innovation of form as it does for a sober sense of realist truth. Bang Bang Bang (2009) depicts a crowd of masked gunman rendered in black and gray against a saturated red background, and Mao on Parade (2008), is a canvas filled with plastic-looking Mao figures, organized in rows by color. These stark looks at violence and political iconography are both simple pictures about power.
Sheng’s recent paintings are characterized by an overlay of long paint drips atop the image, akin to heavy rain on a windowpane. When we spoke to Sheng, he revealed this came from a desire to portray history in a kinetic way, as if the movement suggested the dripping paint might evoke the process of memory.
The technique is most effective in paintings like Protect Bird’s Nest, in which Sheng has painted the iconic stadium in glowing red, surrounded by masses of soldiers in black and gray. The dripping paint on top is a reminder that despite an atmosphere of tension and seeming immobility, time is indeed passing.
Most Wanted (2009) depicts a woman in uniform, rendered in blacks and gray holding a red RMB100 note. The money and girl are juxtaposed as similar subjects of pride and desire. The color red is, by the artist’s own admission, an attempt at irony: while red is the color of luck and happiness in China, it evokes violence and bloodshed in Western art and culture. It’s such double-edged visions that make Sheng Qi’s works striking, multi-faceted chronicles of contemporary culture.

By Honora Shea

What: Sheng Qi
When: Through August 17
Where: F2 Gallery
Tel: 6432-8831
How Much: Free