The influence of conceptual art on sculptures started around 1992, when the young artists like Sui Jianguo, Zhan Wang and Fu Zhongwang prefer to regard sculptures as carriers of the conceptual art while putting pure sculpturing in the second place. The sculpture of “Garment—Sun Yat-sen’s Uniform” created by Sui Jianguo has been one piece of his representative works that was deeply rooted in public minds. He expressed the “Sun Yat-sen’s uniform,” a kind of garments towards which most modern Chinese have the deepest affection, in the form of a cultural sign that was inane but could naturally be associated with the “right center” in the time of Mao Zedong. The “Sun Yat-sen’s Uniform” can be replicated in all sizes and placed in any place, and this renders the “Sun Yat-sen’s Uniform” a special taste. The sculpture reflects the unique Chinese history and signals fetters that bound the social development of modern China.
Taihu Lake stone
Taihu Lake stones are materials often used in classical Chinese gardens and were first employed in royal gardens. Originally produced along the Taihu Lake that is close to the Dongting Mountain of Suzhou, natural Taihu Lake stones have long been beaten by water waves and are thus strangely shaped with many round and deep holes. Thin, wrinkled, leaking and transparent, Taihu Lake stones well demonstrate the aesthetic taste of the royal families and men of letters for traditional Chinese gardens.
Zhan Wang was one of China’s most famous contemporary sculptors. He was first known for the sculpture of “Artificial Mountain Stone,” which was created in 1997. It was the first piece of contemporary Chinese sculptural work collected by American Metropolitan Museum of Art and the first piece of contemporary Chinese sculpture collected by De Young Museum that was newly built in San Francisco. In 2008, the British Museum placed his sculpture of “Artificial Mountain Stone” among the exhibition intended to celebrate the “Year of China” as a key item for the display of contemporary Chinese art. Zhan Wang ingeniously took the Taihu Lake stone in classical Chinese gardens as an element used in contemporary art, which was a conversion between time and space that demonstrated the cultural integration of modern society. He focuses more on artistic concepts and gradually probes into the problem concerning the relationship among sculptural techniques, materials and concepts. As is shown in the artworks of “Artificial Mountain Stone” made of stainless steel, traditional sculptural concepts are dissolved and replaced by a new kind of artistic language that is something between sculptures and carriers. That exactly reflects the situation in which traditional and modern mix together in current China. The works of Sui Jianguo and Zhan Wang shows the avantgarde concepts in 1990s, which also brings contemporary Chinese sculptures into the global cultural background. Interestingly, such sculptors who prefer the creation with comprehensive materials in the early 1990s as Sui Jianguo began returning to traditional sculpture in forms in the late 1990s. In addition, the themes of contemporary Chinese sculptures have been further enriched, including those on post-colonialism, feminism, criticisms about social consumption and the practice of neo-historicism.
Since the 21st century, the contemporary Chinese sculptures have been more designed to cover such aspects as feminism, cartoon art, neo-historicism and fable sculpture. The representative of feminism is Xiang Jing, whose works is mainly about females and highlights painting as a form of sculptural language. She uses female sculptures to describe the ridiculous society and the sense of nihility that commonly exists. Yu Fan is among the representatives of neo- historicism. By creating historical figures, he brings the audience back to the history that the sculptural images belong to. His sculpture of the revolutionary martyr Liu Hulan is an example that historical figures are reflected and reproduced by an ordinary people.
China’s sculptures have undergone different stages of evolution over the past 20–30 years—from the enthusiasm about modernism in the 1980s, to the calm pondering on the postmodernistic diversity in the 1990s and an even more mature attitude adopted today, when the global vision is further broadened. That maturity right reflects the growth of certain strength in contemporary Chinese culture.
Over the past century, China’s sculptures have absorbed and integrated the sculptural styles and techniques of the west that have evolved for centuries. Meanwhile, the Chinese sculptors are also trying to seek for the style and concepts that truly belong to the local people. The sculptural concepts have changed quickly particularly over the recent two decades. Affected by contemporary art, China’s sculptures grow more and more mature, with those focusing more on humanity, social issues and connotation created by responsible sculptors who include young artists with global visions. The artworks, designed to be more open in both styles and contents, better serves as a bridge for communication between the east and west; the efforts of artists also helps promote the understanding of the world towards Chinese culture and China’s current situation to some extent. In this sense, contemporary Chinese sculptors can be said to be disintegrating the “Tower of Babel” built among cultures through carving and creation.