The Collision of Reality and Fantasy

　　The development of digital technology and the popularization of comics caused simplistic visual schema to become a visual symbol in our popular media, thus earning itself widespread feelings of identification in various cultural backgrounds and spheres of influence. In a short few years, a wave of animation and cartoon characteristics in painting appeared. The easily recognizable and appealing nature of cartoon painting makes it especially attractive and easily emulated by the younger generation. Thus the emergence of cartoon paintings has developed into one characteristic of the “shallow culture” of the new, younger generation. Intimacy, directness, simplification have become key words; contemporary art and popular culture have an unprecedented intimacy, and the boundaries of art have thus been broadened. Any style of art necessarily has its social roots, and with the fast-pace of economic development, the fracturing with traditional culture, an increase of life pressures, and various problems caused by China’s social transformation, people are compelled to search for means to psychological safety. The imagined virtual intimacy of cartoon culture compensates for mankind’s emotional void, becoming a means to avoid reality in modern society. Cartoon culture is undoubtedly a placebo for adults.

　　In such a background, a group of young artists outshines others with their talents––Chen Ke is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding among them. If some say that Chen Ke’s early works show traces of Japanese and Korean cartoon influence, then her recent works have an entirely independent artistic language. This kind of individualism is just the artist exceeding our common understanding of cartoon art––that of flattened and simplistic visual symbols. Chen Ke’s recent paintings denote strong circumstantiality and narrative, and from her canvases a kind of “surrealist” disposition is revealed. Her works have become more sensory, more private. This mode of expression is an obvious departure from her early painting style; her “melancholy narrative” is a marked characteristic of Chen Ke’s recent works.

　　In works such as Pearl and Mother we can appreciate the obvious transformation in her painting style. The traditional Chinese ink and wash style background appears imaginary and distant––the main shape of the figures also seems to be intentionally arranged in an attempt to reveal a certain sentiment and predicament. Chen Ke’s works possess something that seems to be able to penetrate into our deepest heart. The artist not only satisfies basic visual affability and creativeness, she seems even more willing to impassively tell a story, everything appears to be narrated. Her convergent methods are precisely what set Chen Ke apart from other artists of the “cartoon generation.” This makes our misgivings about the young generation increasingly indecisive and suspicious; stepping away from the trends, abandoning simplistic visual schema, the younger generation is still speculating and discussing contemporary art. Only the artists themselves can determine the lifespan of the “cartoon generation’s” art or its significance in art history. This undoubtedly requires them to seek and establish the cultural foundation that such works rely upon. Chen Ke’s works have obviously discovered such a niche. We can see an obvious the foundational influence of Chinese (Eastern) traditional thinking in her works.

　　Bolder experimentations and transformations are apparent in her series of works Pirates, and Mirage. The canvas is boldly left white, while the painted sections have a ceramic veneer and the texture of relief sculpture; such contrasts are strong and intriguing. For Chen Ke, the reversal of reality is realistic in itself. A deliberately intense scene within these painted sections never fail to draw in the viewer’s gaze, but if we truly gaze into them, it seems our gaze is momentarily fractured, just like each portion and splash scattered on the canvas. The melancholy “female protagonist” occupies the center of the canvas, as if causing the viewers’ emotions to melt in once again. There is a true nothingness that we know not from where it comes, and feelings that we know not where they will end. In these moments the artist manifests an uncommon ability to control. Her work method of constantly putting pressure on herself is rare among the young generation of artists, especially in contemporary art’s current state of being constantly bombarded by the market. We should feel sincerely gratified.

　　With You, I Will Never Feel Lonely is a large-scale installation piece by Chen Ke. The work exposes the essence of magical tones, it seems inconceivable but we see an evocation of our generation’s memories through archetypal home furniture of the 80s, the splashing of color everywhere and strange dolls. These feelings of misplacement seem to cause us anxiety, and begin to manifest into feeling at a loss. In this moment Chen Ke seems like a magician, viewers are not only those fooled by her stunt but also seem to become her co-conspirators. Like the viewer, the artist is likely to be unable to distinguish if these are her childhood memories, or scenes of an imaginary character. We can’t help but recall the image of the little girl that continually appears in her paintings. In her painting, sculpture, and this installation work we follow the story of this imaginary character. The artist seems like an author weaving a tale, and having already completely invested her store of emotions, sometimes we cannot tell what is real and what is imaginary. The work is an inclusive realm, pulling the viewer into the trap of its vacuity. This conflict between the real and the imaginary is precisely the beauty of the piece.

　　Chen Ke’s works, both her paintings and installation, all appear tender, cozy, lamenting but beautiful––they arouse one’s fervor to hypnotic levels, and are capable of moving us. Her works are forever capable of arousing something deep in our memory, something concrete, something beyond description. Her works are not simply expressing the basic ability of art to move people, what is more important is that she has found her personal artistic path. Perhaps we have no way of guessing in which direction it will lead, but in the very least it provides a possible direction for the development of China’s young “cartoon generation”. This kind of exploration is precisely the spirit of today’s contemporary art, and is especially what today’s young generation needs.