Culture Up (Out?) Your Ass Thursday

Say what you will about Chinese sculptor Chen Wenling (just the other day, talking to some colleagues, I said I found him shallow and pedantic, but I may have mistaken him for someone else), his work is certainly striking.

Take, for example, his 2009 series, What You See May Not Be Real. The painted fiberglass works skewer (below, literally) the Wall Street culture that berthed banking crisis of the late 2010s. In the work below, the figure pinned to the wall by the gas-powered bull (according the The Design Inspiration, farting implies bluffing or lying in Chinese culture) is intended to represent disgraced financier Bernie Madoff.

 

Subtlety, it seems, may not be a Wenling attribute. 

But if you like your art muscular and flatulent, Wenling's work is available through Ode to Art Contemporary Singapore. Pick up a couple for the team next time you're there.