DSL Magazine: Issue 6

For Yan Xing, the classics of Western art are heavy with the history and the culture which nourished them, even made them sacred. The point then is to fight this process whereby we create myths, perceived as tools for power and a new form of domination of the West on the rest of the world. In his series American Art (2013) he presents two men, almost naked, imitating the postures of Greek athletes, throwing the javelin or the disk. The universe of black and white, very dark, strengthens the sensuality of the prints and allows the artist to chisel the forms in a very precise manner. However, for Yan, the issue is not of asserting the individual nor his sexual freedom: beyond the bodies, what he is questioning is the criterium of what is Beauty and he challenges dominant ideas in this respect. These sculptural and idealized bodies refer obviously to the idea of Beauty as it was defined in Western Antiquity. They could also represent the glorification of strength and bodily perfection as promoted by both fascism and socialism during the 20th century. And what with today’s mainstream cult of beauty? Coming closer, one sees that the bodies are covered with scars, like those of the slaves of an alienating culture.