White Rabbit

The piece of art that was most appealing to me was Lin Jiunting’s Beyond the Frame. The reason I like this artwork is that the artist has used multimedia technology to make it interactive allowing the viewers to become more active participants in the artwork. The piece consists of four screens displaying classic Chinese noble plants the plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. These also represent the four seasons. The best part of the work is the four touch screens beneath each flower that allow the audience to play with the flowers and even create sounds by touching the strings of a musical instrument called a zither. The artist Lin Jiunting was born in 1970 and grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. He studied art in New York and was fascinated with “the constant transformation and boundary-breaking of contemporary Western art”. He now lives and works in Taipei and Shanghai.

The only artwork that I didn’t particularly like was Chen Wenling’s Valliant Struggle. The reason I don’t like this work is because it is far too exaggerated for example the pig has too many teeth making it look scary and gruesome. The only thing I like about this work is the symbols the artist has used like the pig which represents Chinese people today which is seen throughout a lot of his artworks. Chen Wenling was born in Anxi, Fujian China in 1969 and studied at the Xiamen Academy of Art and Design. He then studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He is now living and working in Xiamen and Beijing as a professional artist.

I thought the excursion to the White Rabbit was quite beneficial because I got to see a whole new type of art and the culture behind it. Because of the guide I learnt about the thought that goes into these artworks and what influences the artists to create them. I also learnt that art can be expressed in many different ways, and not just traditional ways like sculpture and painting but through a unique and personalized way. For example there was an artwork that interested me because I haven’t seen many like it because it was created by manipulating light. There were an assortment of objects hanging from the ceiling with a spotlight pointed towards them creating an interesting shadow on the wall.

The White Rabbit gallery was founded by Kerr and Judith Neilson and mainly focuses on Chinese contemporary art. Judith Neilson opened up the gallery because she ran out of room to put her extensive art collection. The white Rabbit now has over 400 pieces of art making it one of the largest collections of contemporary Chinese art in the world.