GengJianyi.PDFVIP

Geng Jianyi 耿建翌 The Second Situation 1989 Forasmuch…Being the Classical 1997 Visible Face 2001 A main focus of the extensive oeuvre of the artist Geng Jianyi is the issue of individual identity, that is, his own personal position in the context of the collective. Despite his highly diverse use of aesthetic and artistic media (ranging from activistic street art, oil painting, installation art to ink drawing) the artist never ceases to explore the questions of the ’self’ in the world of today. His work can be described as ’after-images’ that, continuously, veils and unveils fragments of the individual. Geng Jianyi demonstrates an intense concern about self-awareness, and the multitude of forms in which the individuality is expressed and represented. In a series of portraits entitled Face (2001), the artist uses photographic prints of portraits that he almost entirely covers with ink. Using a traditional Chinese brush technique, Geng Jianyi only lets spots of light shine through. The semi-transparency of the portraits corresponds to a notion of withdrawal or abandonment of individuality. These images oscillate between total abstractness and recognizable facial features. A similar approach is undertaken in an earlier series of portraits titled Impossible to Name. Here, the artist combine oil on canvas and paper-cuts to signify the diverse layers that constitute our beings, and the shifting ground that threatens our existence into dissolution. Other suggestive titles of work evolving around themes of existential identity include Who is He (1994) and