Uncaging a Zoo in a Museum
Wang Wei with Do You Know? (2011) (left) and Fun Facts (2011) (right) in the exhibition M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation
Wang Wei’s painting, Fun Facts, explores perception and tradition through a unique visual experiment with Chinese bulletin boards that reveals different images depending on the perspective.
The Chinese poet and painter Su Shi once wrote that it was possible to see the many faces of Lushan Mountain only by looking at it from different perspectives. Su’s take on the relativity of perception finds resonance in Wang Wei’s chimeric Fun Facts. To create this work, Wang drew three red Chinese characters adorned with yellow edges on a board. On top of this board, he placed long pieces of wood that had been painted on both sides. The end result is a piece that yields three distinct images when viewed at different angles. Audiences who stand to the left side of the artwork see a roaring tiger; those standing to the right see a pair of cuddly red pandas; and those looking straight at the work will see the three Simplified Chinese characters that make up the title of the piece.
As with other members of the Post-sense Sensibility group or artists, Wang centres his practice on experiments with space, image, and medium
Video Transcript
(Original language: Mandarin)
WANG WEI: This work is actually copying information boards you see at the zoo. Most of these boards contain different messages, which can be seen from different sides. Because of its design, how much you see depends on where you stand. The work was created with special attention to its spatial arrangements. I’ve considered the flow of the audience, the process of their viewing, and their routes. You do walk in an exhibition. You won’t [only] stand still, will you? These boards were built around the 1950s and 1960s. What interested me about them was their design. They present socialist aesthetics with restrained decoration using a traditional Chinese frame but a simplified version. From that period onwards I might have incorporated more elements related to this kind of ideology. Like exploring ideas about control being controlled and things like that. When this decorative thing from the zoo is displayed in a gallery, the context changes. Then what I explore in these works could be something more.
Born in Beijing in 1972, Wang created many works of art that were inspired by the Beijing Zoo, which he often visited. Some examples include A Zoo, No Animals (2007), which replicated the environment of an animal cage, as well as Natural History VI (2013) and Two Rooms (2015), which respectively recreated the backdrops of the African tortoise and baboon habitats at the Beijing Zoo.
The fact that the Beijing Zoo features so frequently in Wang’s works can be explained by the fact that the artist lives in the Chinese capital, making it easy for him to visit the zoo for research. As Wang himself put it: ‘Every time I visit the zoo, I’m bound to discover something new.’
With Fun Facts, Wang was inspired by the popular-science bulletin boards he often saw at the zoo. These information boards were constructed in the style typical of the 1950s and 1960s. Wang was deeply influenced by these minimalist bulletin boards and felt that they contained a down-to-earth socialist aesthetic as well as simplified elements of traditional Chinese frame designs.
From the left or the right, Fun Facts is an optical illusion depicting different animals depending on your viewpoint. Seen from the front, it reveals the phrase ‘fun facts’ in Simplified Chinese, recalling communication directed at school children or zoo visitors
From the left, a tiger. ‘The work was created with a special attention to its spatial arrangements. I’ve considered the flow of the audience the process of their viewing and their routes. You do walk in an exhibition. You won't [only] stand still, will you?’, asks Wang
From the right, a pair of red pandas, the slats, meanwhile, give the impression that the animals are in cages
From the left or the right, Fun Facts is an optical illusion depicting different animals depending on your viewpoint. Seen from the front, it reveals the phrase ‘fun facts’ in Simplified Chinese, recalling communication directed at school children or zoo visitors
From the left, a tiger. ‘The work was created with a special attention to its spatial arrangements. I’ve considered the flow of the audience the process of their viewing and their routes. You do walk in an exhibition. You won't [only] stand still, will you?’, asks Wang
From the right, a pair of red pandas, the slats, meanwhile, give the impression that the animals are in cages
From the left or the right, Fun Facts is an optical illusion depicting different animals depending on your viewpoint. Seen from the front, it reveals the phrase ‘fun facts’ in Simplified Chinese, recalling communication directed at school children or zoo visitors
From the left, a tiger. ‘The work was created with a special attention to its spatial arrangements. I’ve considered the flow of the audience the process of their viewing and their routes. You do walk in an exhibition. You won't [only] stand still, will you?’, asks Wang
From the right, a pair of red pandas, the slats, meanwhile, give the impression that the animals are in cages
From the left or the right, Fun Facts is an optical illusion depicting different animals depending on your viewpoint. Seen from the front, it reveals the phrase ‘fun facts’ in Simplified Chinese, recalling communication directed at school children or zoo visitors
From the left, a tiger. ‘The work was created with a special attention to its spatial arrangements. I’ve considered the flow of the audience the process of their viewing and their routes. You do walk in an exhibition. You won't [only] stand still, will you?’, asks Wang
From the right, a pair of red pandas, the slats, meanwhile, give the impression that the animals are in cages
In China in the 1970s and 1980s, bulletin boards were used as tools to disseminate ideologies and information that carried deep socialist overtones. They were widely displayed in public spaces and were used by the government and enterprises to promulgate policies and make announcements. This form of one-way communication reflected an absolute monopoly on knowledge. Through his visual experiment, Wang dissolves this form of top-down control. ‘Most of these boards contain different messages, which can be seen from different sides. Because of their design, how much you see depends on where you stand,’ he explained.
Furthermore, by featuring non-political images of a tiger and red pandas in Fun Facts, Wang subverts the usual propagandist functions that are associated with the bulletin board.
Gone are the days when it was common for Chinese citizens to congregate around bulletin boards to read and discuss information about politics and current affairs. In our hyperconnected modern age, information can be instantaneously disseminated through smartphones, rendering bulletin boards obsolete. Now displayed in a museum gallery, Fun Facts removes the information board from its original context and repositions it in a new environment. As Wang put it: ‘What the work explores now is a new set of meanings that could also become something else.’
The Chinese version of this article was originally published on 24 May 2023 in Ming Pao. It is presented here in edited and translated form. Originally authored by Lap-wai Lam, and translated and edited by Dorothy So.
All images: Wang Wei. Fun Facts, 2011. Acrylic on board. M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation © Wang Wei unless otherwise noted.
Lap-wai Lam is Senior Editor at M+.