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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Luo Qingmin, Estate of Chen Shaoxiong
Chen Shaoxiong 陳劭雄
Homescape 家景
2002
In this installation, miniature dioramas of households are presented on individual shelves. Each household consists of people, furniture, and appliances cut out from photographs. Coffee tables, fans, television sets, and children’s toys are present in almost all the dioramas. While the dioramas resemble those of ordinary middle-income households in cities in the 1990s, some of the photographs are placed at awkward angles, and several have strange proportions, giving the scenes a sense of uncanniness. Chen Shaoxiong’s work explores the urban environment and the transformations in China brought about by globalisation. The scenes in Homescape indicate the changes in the lives of Chinese families in the 1990s—Western-style furniture appears in all the scenes and each family includes only one child. The artist sought to create ‘historical specimens’ that capture a particular period in modern Chinese history. Chen’s work encompasses video, installation, and ink painting. He was also involved in artist collectives, including the Guangzhou-based Big Tail Elephant Group and—with Gimhongsok and Ozawa Tsuyoshi—the international collaboration the Xijing Men.
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