The Ever So Paradoxical Art of Wilson Shieh
Catalogue essay of the solo exhibition by Wilson Shieh at Osage Shanghai in 2008, Titled 'Lady Killers'
by: Evangelo Costadimas from the exhibition catalogue ”Lady Killers”
isbn: 978-988-17583-2-3
reproduced courtesy of Osage Gallery
The Ever So Paradoxical Art of Wilson Shieh
You may not expect someone who has mastered the ancient painting style would be applying it to contemporary art but that is exactly what Wilson Shieh does and in his work he combines and contrasts the ancient and the modern in an incisive, refreshing and surprisingly effective way.
Shieh is fascinated with all manner of contrasts and contradictions. His most recent work is inspired by the antitheses of femininity and masculinity, dominance and subjugation, the historical and the contemporary. He seeks out the conflicts that such contrasts convey in order to unveil the hidden and sometimes depraved relationship between the inner self and the outer appearance of his subjects. Through this kind of revelation, his work brings forth a narrative that is allegorical in nature. His subject matter varies but his concerns are current, often humorous and almost always imbued with sexuality. Not unlike traditional Chinese paintings, his works are meant not only to delight but also to illuminate. He draws inspiration from the present day stereotypes in an ever changing, post-colonial Hong Kong.
Shieh’s work is informed by the aesthetics of traditional Chinese paintings. In particular, he has been influenced by Gongbi fine brush painting, and became proficient in the technique at a young age. Gongbi is a technique that uses highly detailed and “tidy” brushstrokes. It is considered one of the finest forms of Chinese painting. Shieh’s attention to detail and meticulously painted fine lines bestow his works with rare preciousness that is uncommon in contemporary art.
Wilson Shieh was born and raised in Hong Kong where he continues to live and work. He earned his Honours degree in Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1994 and worked as a newspaper editor and research assistant at the Museum of Art, before returning to study. He was awarded his MFA degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001. He has been exhibiting his work since 1997 and has already produced several important bodies of work. His subject matter evolves around Hong Kong’s history and its people.
Between 2000 and 2005, Shieh produced a number of series that dealt with themes from Hong Kong’s transitional history and with femininity. In the series Four Seasons, painted in 2005, four panels depict the same woman in exactly the same stance but with four distinct hairstyles and fashions. In 2006 he began to focus more on notions of women’s vanity and power they wield over men and other similar contradictions. The series Baggage Run and Headbags Festival may be considered similar pieces and precursors to his later work. In Baggage Run, we see a fashionable woman pulling a luggage cart with one hand while brandishing a sword with the other. She takes fast strides towards he destination, as if to say “get out of my way”. To complete the story, we see several naked men scurrying out of her way, with two more sitting in her wake. Her transparent bag reveals a scrunched up naked man inside. Headbags Festival mocks women’s insecurity about their own looks by depicting a young girl amongst an array of mid-autumn festival lanterns made of heads. She seems to like the one that looks exactly like her. In this work Shieh combines comical flair with nimble subtlety to create an allegory on narcissistic vanity.
In the series Lady Killers, which consists of both paintings and drawings, Shieh has constructed an entire “Goddess” iconography inspired by Hong Kong’s women. Shieh plays with two distinct aspects which directly draw form the two worlds of the title - “Killer” and “Lady”. Killer is an unsparing characterisation of ruthlessness while in the Lady reference is manifest in a gentler and more benevolent disposition. In Lady Killers, Shieh casts female figures with iconic names such as Victoria, Mary, Diana and Mulan into pseudo-archetypal roles. These women always play the leading role but there are also cameo appearances by men. The men are almost always presented in an inferior or subdued stance, in some cases even exterminated, a few remaining shreds of their clothing the only clue left of their prior existence. The women assume commanding, victorious postures; they are glorified but at the same time laden with satire and absurdity. After all, even Goddesses of the Chinese pantheon possess human traits.
In the painting entitled Panda the Carnivore, Shieh critiques ideas of female dominance. A girl wears a panda suit made from sleeves and trousers torn from what was clearly a typical business man’s pinstriped suit. A white dress shirt, a bra with cps made of panda bear faces, dark shades from clip on sunglasses and her hair pulled up in two knots complete the costume. She kneels on the ground holding a bamboo pole with the remains of the pinstriped suit jacket slunk from it in the form of a banderole. We are left with the impression that this lovely girl must have devoured a businessman and made a trophy out of his suit.
In Victoria the Lady, we are presented with a fine looking lady dressed in a traditional Victorian frock and hat. A closer look reveals that the clothing is made of see-through lace. Despite its conservative and elegant exterior, the feminine shape invites the viewer to scrutinise that which lies beneath the surface and to discover her seductive curves and her lingerie. It is only when the gaze reaches the sharp point of her high heel stiletto shoe digging into a man’s face, that his form becomes discernible. He wears a pinstriped suit and an ambiguous expression. Despite being doubled up, a hand roams up Lady Victoria’s inner thigh. As the finishing touch to this paradox, Lady Victoria holds a deadly Guang Dao, an ancient Chinese weapon in the form of a lance with a long curved blade behind her. With this painting, Shieh critiques ideas of female dominance gained by hiding a merciless sexuality beneath a deceptively beautiful or innocent exterior. This is perhaps a poignant reference to the gender politics in an increasingly materialistic Hong Kong society. Hong Kong has a pervasive and perverse fascination with stories of beautiful women seeking to gain a better quality of life by drawing wealthy men into discrete relationships of convenience.
In a similar vein, Butterfly the Ninja is a masked woman whose camouflage garb consists of nothing but a black transparent ribbon wrapping around her body and limbs in one continuous spiralling stripe and a flowing gossamer cape with decorative Shuriken patterns. Hira-Shuriken, also known as ninja throwing stars, are small metal disc weapons with sharp blades on all sides. She stands ready to finish off her victim after having already stuck one deadly disc in his behind as the lies face down swaddled and helpless like a baby. The work makes a farcical comment about spoiled men being put in their right place but also comments on a woman’s stealth hidden beneath her beauty.
Shieh’s work is interesting in that it can be seen from a number of totally different angles. His Lady Killers could well be a band of heroines who are bent on avenging all wrongful and unfair treatment women have had to endure under centuries of Chinese machismo. Perhaps these fictitious amazons represent modern day Hong Kong women’s secret desire to dominate and wage war with good looks and charming smiles as their secret weapons, paving the way to the fulfillment of their desires. No matter what interpretation a viewer might give these works, there is no denying that they are illustrative, ironic, didactic and humorous all at once. His paintings and drawings seduce us into looking closer, in order to discover the arranged meanings that substantiate the lighthearted yet mysterious nature of his Lady Killers while at the same time, making a strong and provocative comment on modern society.
Source: Asia Art Archive https://aaa.org.hk/archive/66177