Sui Jianguo
[2] Both of his parents were factory workers and were largely absent during his early childhood due to the workload imposed on them by the Mao government.
At the age of ten, schools were closed as part of the Cultural Revolution, and Sui began to work in the factories with his parents.
His studies and practice gave fruit to his first true work: a traditional Chinese landscape painting, which he completed in 1976 after the death of Mao.
After his death, the Chinese government loosened its grip on the population, and educational reforms were quick to follow.
[6] According to Sui, by the time he had enrolled in college, he had decided he wanted to do sculpture, inspired by his years in the factories, where people would tell him he had “skill in using his hands”.
[5] After gaining his master's degree, Sui travelled to the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, and other places to display his art.
Finally, Sui returned to become chairman of the department of sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
His techniques of sealing, binding, tying and hammering created a relationship of association and confrontation between his materials, which resonate with his perception of life and his internal conflicts.
Many of Sui's early works reflect his personal experiences and explore, to a lesser or greater extent, and his anxieties and feelings of imprisonment.
He draws on the powerful image of the Mao suit, not as an element of revolutionary attire but as a symbol of restriction and limitation.
This is a glance toward plastic toys from the start of the Chinese economic flight, and a symbol of an antiquated China moving toward being contemporary.
The fabrication of finished products based on models and imported raw materials has become the economic norm of emerging countries.
Because of his influential works and through his educational efforts, abstract and conceptual sculpture have been well accepted by the ordinary Chinese people and by the authorities.
Not only have these allowed Sui to become a prominent contemporary Chinese artist, but they also grant viewers an insight into his mind and opinions.
His need to experiment with rocks came after Tiananmen Square; it was during this stage that Sui began working with more quiet materials.
Sue Wang states that “utilizing various forms and sizes to simultaneously release the excitement and inhibition associated with this object, the artist used a satirical approach to express the conflict between escape and repression”.
In the grander scope of the work, however, certain crucial details manifest themselves in the project that allow the artist to fully share his feelings and intentions via the artwork.
The exterior shells are weathered, perhaps indicating the attempts made upon the structure to weaken it or tear it down, yet we still see it standing in place.
