When we first noticed Chen Wenling’s “What You see Might Not Be Real” sculpture, we immediately wanted to find out more about the artist and his work. This is not the name which jumped at us but the rather amusing look of the sculpture – yes it a farting bull!
Here is what Zhu Qi says about Chen Wenglin’s sculptures
Chen Wenling’s sculptures represent the spirit of collective imagery that defines China after her entrance into consumerist society. His work uses a mythological form that encompasses the spiritual insemination that overtook a generation with materialism in the 1990s, as well as the self-awareness and post awareness era everyday spirit of Chinese after the 1990s.
“What You see Might Not Be Real” (or the Farting Bull)
Zhu Qi adds –
Two main themes are prevalent in Chen Wenling’s sculptures, the first being an expression of the extreme human condition, the latter being an expression of the spiritual imagery of a consumer society.
The “farting bull”, we will refer to the work above using this – so much more fun, is a reflexion ab about the infamous global financial crisis.
The man getting crushed by the bull is Bernard (Bernie) Madoff who is an American fraudster and a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history.
Chen Wenglin’s “farting bull” has also been used in several other sculpture works. We included below a few examples of these as well as more about the “What You see Might Not Be Real” sculpture – the piece first described above
Okuda (Spain) and Remed (France) have renewed the symbolic sculpture located in the vineyards of the winery Campo Viejo in La Rioja, Spain this past week. The work entitled “A Bridge Between Sky and Earth” pictured by the artists was built in 2013 and became an icon for the wineries. Three years later, the sculpture is reborn with a new look, colourful and vibrant with the unmistakable graphic line of the two artists.
A 6 meters hight sculpture
The renewed appearance of this large public artwork, more than six meters high, is a celebration of the Campo Viejo Wineries with the art and this intense collaboration of the two artists.
The fourth limited edition label of Campo Viejo Art Series range signed by Okuda and Remed, will be presented with the image of the sculpture as well.
A long running collaboration between the two artists
Over the past four years we have had the opportunity to witness how this duo of artists, Remed and Okuda, has gradually created a lot of artwork and participated in several places around the world teaming up with Campo Viejo.
Okuda
Places as diverse as Mexico, Miami, Toronto, Warsaw, Madrid, London, Oslo, Zurich, Brussels, Dublin… have hosted the multiple stops of the Streets of Color, Rioja winery project in which the two urban artists have created a recognizable style in which the bright colors and geometric shapes intertwine in a unique way. “It is like a third artist were born from the collaboration of our two styles.” Remed says.
This ongoing collaborative journey between Okuda & Remed with the Campo Viejo winemakers celebrates the expressive nature of the wines and the sculpture in the vineyards was the first work and starting point for all other collaborations that have emerged on the edge of the years between the renowned Pernod Ricard brand and the two artists.
The artistic collaboration is managed by the cultural enterprise Nobulo since 2012.
More about the artists
REMED
Remed
Remed (Paris, 1978) is an expressive French Artist based in Madrid who is well known for his bold use of shapes and colour and large-scale murals. He started painting in 1995 in the privacy of his studio in his home town of Lille, but felt limited by a canvas framework so quickly moved his art to the streets.
Born in Santander, Spain, in 1980 and based in Madrid, Okuda is a passionate and internationally renowned Urban Artist.
Okuda has developed over the years a unique style of artistic expression characterized as “pop-surrealism meets Urban Art”. He uses geometric, bright-coloured abstract shapes with interplay of grey bodies and organic forms to depict contradictions about existentialism, the fake freedom of capitalism, the war between humans and themselves, and the meaning of life.
Since 2002, Okuda has received international recognition and now gets invited to participate in group shows and art events across the world. He has showcased his work at over 56 exhibitions and his portfolio expands a range of mediums from conceptual mixed media installations and mixed media canvas to mural paintings and Street Art.
Ever since two local winemakers – Beristain and Ortigüela – created the first vintage in 1959, Campo Viejo has represented the expressiveness, colour and vibrancy of Rioja.
The Rioja winemaking region is situated in the north of Spain, in the heart of the Ebro valley. It’s the most important Spanish wine region and in its heart lies Campo Viejo.Campo Viejo’s winemakers work hard to ensure that Campo Viejo wines are the very best expressions of contemporary Rioja, conveying the vibrancy of the region in a way that is in keeping with the expressive, fruit-driven style which today’s wine drinkers are actively seeking.
Some of you may know this – UK Parliament will debate on a second EU referendum at Westminster Hall on 5 September 2016, after an online petition attracted more than four-million signatures. As a reminder, 51.9% of the UK voted to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016, with a turnout of 72.2%.
We thought we’ll share with you guys 5 street art pieces about Brexit
1. “Not #InForThis?” by The WeAreEurope artist collective& Paintsmiths Of Bristol, Bristol, England
A kiss between ex-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany’s Eric Honecker
The work – a reference to a iconic Berlin Wall mural of a kiss between ex-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany’s Eric Honecker – went viral… and the idea has been copied this week for the UK’s referendum on EU membership.
A Bristol street artist created a new mural that features Trump – who has claimed that the UK would be better off outside the EU – instead making out with former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, the de-facto leader of the Brexit campaign.
The work, on the side of Bristol’s old Carriage Works, features the slogan “Not #InForThis? Register to vote on the EU referendum now!”
The WeAreEurope artist collective have claimed responsibility for the mural alongside Paintsmiths Of Bristol.
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2. By Odeith, Bristol, England
This mural was done for the Upfest festival help each year in Bristol. You will have recognised the actor Benny Hill who featured in his long-running internationally popular television programme The Benny Hill Show
Otto Schade flu to Malta and attended Sunscape festival in Malta. He produced new artwork for the occasion, namely “Snail’s life” which depicts a snail having as its shell, a skull looking one.
Special paint was used so the artwork glows in the dark, pretty cool uh?!
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About Sunscape festival
Sunscape is a place to party; free our minds; learn and be inspired.A haven for us to enjoy the outdoors, make new friends and transform ourselves.
A musical happening infused with creativity, performance and lifestyle activities. A playful exercise in the art of living and being co-creators in our own experience.
About the artist
Otto was born in Chile on the 30th October 1971. He initially studied Architecture at the Bio Bio University and Construction and Design Architecture in Concepcion, Chile. As a successful architect, he has been awarded for public and private projects.
Otto has always felt an avid fascination for the Surrealists, as well as the freedom which surrounds abstract painting. This influence has made Otto turn his creative skills to painting, which has become his strongest passion and for which he has also been recognised with an honorable mention.
Born in California, Arrow is a world-renowned street artist who has kept his identity a secret. His name was created when he began painting the word ‘Above’ on freight trains as a teenager.
He later shifted to drawing arrows pointing above, which became his trademark.Much of his work is made with these abstract shapes, though he’s also known for art with a social conscience.
Perhaps most controversially, in October 2011 he created a city block-long text mural in Miami which read ‘give a wall street banker enough rope and he will hang himself‘. Above it he suspended an effigy of banker being hanged. He hoped the art would draw further attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement shaking US politics at the time.
In 2012 he visited Spain, a nation in the throes of the Eurozone crisis- when 24% of the population were unemployed. He created a stencil piece showing a queue of people waiting outside an unemployment office along with text announcing the figure, the highest unemployment rate in the world. At the time Spain’s unemployment rate for under-25s was 53%.
In South Africa he created a giant mural to raise awareness about the illegal blood diamond trade. In his very own ‘jewel heist’, he tricked one of the world’s largest jewel exporters into allowing him to paint on the side of one of their buildings. His mural read ‘Diamonds are a woman’s best friend and a man’s worst enemy’. He hadn’t informed the company about the second half of this sentence.
In 2014 he was commissioned by Redbull to design and decorate obstacles for their professional fixed gear BMX competition Ride+Style in San Francisco (pictured below).
Click to enlarge
In October 2015 Above went to Johannesburg, South Africa to paint his biggest mural yet, a 33-meter tall piece of work called Incognito.
What’s great about this mural is the way the overlapping arrows create stunning colour combinations.
For Above, this was a crucial part of the work that he wanted to get right:
“My colour selections were predetermined by the relationship of how each colour transforms when laid on top of another.
This was easy, however, in the designing of the mural I had to constantly move colours and shapes to finally get the final colour arrangement you see.”
More pics below of the Incognito mural – click to enlarge
Above is still thriving worldwide, creating both pieces both abstract and political.
