Xu Zhen’s East and West Buddha at National Gallery of Victoria Triennial

Shanghai-based artist Xu Zhen has had a penchant for controversial subject matter. I recall, early 2008, I had encountered Xu through one of his seminal artworks – The Starving of Sudan (2008), featuring a live African toddler menacingly eyed by a mechanical vulture in the middle of a desert scene, a  re-creation inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning image taken by South African photographer Kevin Carter in 1993. For the inaugural Triennial at National Gallery of Victoria, Xu Zhen evokes social commentary once again with East and West Buddha sculpture, combining replications of the iconic reclining Buddha statue with recognisable greco-roman, renaissance and neoclassical figures. Xu zhen’s studio hand-casted all the classical european sculptures seen astride the reclining Buddha.

Xu Zhen’s East and West Buddha at National Gallery of Victoria Triennial

Xu Zhen’s visual commentary on Kevin Carter’s horrific shot of a vulture leering at a lone child huddled in starvation in the middle of the Sudanese desert re-ignited international debate on ethical standards of photojournalism, where Carter was widely condemned for leaving the child unaided. Carter eventually committed suicide a few months after winning the Pulitzer-Prize for that shot. While Xu’s East and West Buddha sculpture is less controversial, it is still no less impactful in how we discuss eastern and western heritage in an increasingly globalised environment.

A leading figure among the young generation of Chinese artists,  Xu’s extensive body of work extends beyond sculptures but also photography, installation art and video, more importantly, his projects always include theatrical humor or social critique. For his East and West Buddha figure at the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial, Xu Zhen hopes to cultivate new understanding and appreciation across socio-cultural boundaries through his ‘eternity-buddha in nirvana’. Xu believes his 14-meter-long reclining Buddha dating from the Tang dynasty and embellished with his own greco-roman, renaissance and neoclassical sculptures will foster  ‘new form of creative culture’.

For more information, visit National Gallery of Victoria online.

image courtesy of Xu Zhen