Why Young Chinese Artists Are Avoiding Political Art
He Xiangyu’s breakthrough exhibit took place in 2011, when he was just 25 years old. The Coca-Cola Project was a mound of noxious, gooey residue extracted from 127 tons of Coca Colaa landfill shrine to consumerism that could be interpreted as an indictment of capitalist China. After that came a giant military tank made out of Louis Vuitton leather, deflated and powerless on the art-gallery floor but charged with political meaning. It was loud,, speaking to a set of political concerns freshly relevant to the post-Tiananmen generation. But since 2013, He’s art has been to theThose pieces, and others by He’s peers, represent a broader trend among younger Chinese artists, as political-statement art gives way to more abstract, contemporary fare.
