Cui Guotai
The two acrylic paintings included in this exhibition formed a suite of works entitled
Portraits of Industry, produced between 2003 -2005. In them, Cui Guotai mines the history of his birthplace in the Tiexi district in
Shenyang, Northeast China producing insightful works that examine the deconstruction of a once economically fertile city formerly hailed as the epicentre of the steel industry in
China between 1930 and 1990. With a reduced palette of sombre greys and steel blues, Guotai presents a chilling portrayal of the remains of architecture left over in this district. One of two paintings in the exhibition,
The Big Roof Workers, 2004
depicts only the roof of a disused factory emblazoned with the once steadfast declaration: “To stand on one’s own feet, for life.
When difficult to lift one’s own spirit, fight”.
Comparisons may be made with representations of ancient Greek and Roman ruins in Western art since Guotai presents factories and facades in a monumental and somewhat melancholic manner. In essence he records these vestiges of
China’s monolithic industrial tombs perhaps to incite dialogue on the tenuous nature of economic advancement at the expense of moral decay.
