by Yue Minjun: A-maze-ing Laughter
Recently and finally I have seen in person one of the most popular sculptural installations in Vancouver, situated near English Bay for the Vancouver Biennale of 2009-2011. A-maze-ing Laughter, made by Yue Minjun of China, is a group of 14 giant painted bronze figures, all laughing merrily. Eventually it was purchased and gifted to the city by a prominent businessman.
My photos do not do the stunning work justice. Here is a the best I have seen of the entire group, and here is a review. After so many years of seeing and reading about it, I’m so happy to have at long last visited it and noted the happy the crowds around it. In a way, it reminds me of another more recent Biennale installation I saw and wrote about last year.
May 20, 2015 in Art Exhibitions, Other artists by Marja-Leena
That’s another interesting installation you have there. While I prefer the one by Wang Shugang you shared with us last year, maybe because they’re so like monks, these guys certainly have a lot of presence (to say the least).
Halifax doesn’t have any outdoor modern art installations but we do have a very big anchor and statues of Robbie Burns (doesn’t everyone?) and Churchill (of which there are no photographic links to share). Are you jealous?
We are very lucky here that the Vancouver Biennale has brought in many interesting sculptures by international artists for temporary two or three year exhibitions and some of those works have been purchased. Oh, they all have presence; my all-time favourite remains Magdalena Abakanowicz, though I like Shugang very much too.
Both being port cities, anchors must be common but I did not know that we have a Robbie Burns statue here, though I suppose that is not surprising this being a former British colony. As for the last one, I don’t know if we have one though there must be a number of old dead politicians scattered about especially in Victoria. No, not jealous, nor am I vain about Vancouver for we are still small potatoes compared to many great art centres in the world.
When it come to small potatoes Halifax is lucky to make a chip 🙂
Heh, good one! Yet I think Vancouver is small potatoes in the art world compared to Toronto and Montreal, never mind Europe and USA etc.
These guys look both joyous, and somewhat spooky. I’m always delighted to see such successfully attractive public sculpture, which engages folks, and gets them looking at and talking about art.
Olga, you are right, there is a kind of spookiness to them as well. Perhaps that is what makes these art, not just cartoon characters, and therefore engaging as you say. Children love them and climb all over them.
I can’t but smile when looking at these characters one by one. I wonder if there is a special sentence that goes with crossing one’s arms over our head and sticking pinky and thumb up.
Yes, I notice everyone smiles as they look at these. I too wondered about that one with arms and hands and fingers over the head… animal ears came to mind.
Good observations. It’s the creepiness factor that makes these fascinating. Are they ironic? Are they aggressive? Do they remind me of the terra cotta soldiers? No.
They are not noble. They are not trying to live up to something. But a lot of effort went into making them, and they are very durable.
The provincialism of Vancouver is real. It’s a funny thing about art scenes, how they rise up and disappear. Vancouver is yet to have its day. It will happen.
Where we live there is no art scene to speak of, which is better than having a provincial art scene, I think. Most locally produced art here is hideous or banal, though there are a few good painters and potters who do charming work. The majority of people here have not traveled enough or seen enough first rate art to judge art works, and they don’t have any “natural” taste. This leaves latecomers like me to make our own stuff without expecting most of the folks around us to understand it or even care about it. There are no criteria of taste and nothing is expensive or authorized by any authorities. There are several of us elders doing ceramics, and we support each others’ endeavors, and that’s enough.
Yue Minjun is quite internationally recognized for his work, so the Biennale must have felt confident about his work.
Vancouver has actually improved a lot in the over 40 years we’ve lived here. Though we have only one major art gallery it has quite a large collection and is in the process of fundraising for a new larger building, with architects already selected. Also there are quite a few artists from BC that have gone on to great success in the greater art world. We have a very good art school here that keeps growing too. It seems to me that there needs to be a certain larger population of wealthy who support the arts.
I know how it is in small towns, having lived in one for several years, but there are always crafts people everywhere. I even gave a one-day workshop in clay sculpture to a potter’s guild in that town.
Oh, yes, I saw a photograph him smiling with some other smiling artworks recently… So all his work is of himself, is it? And are they all falling into a series?
Marly, I don’t think I’ve seen a photo of Yue but did read that he uses his own face (and body?). Yet I don’t think he necessarily means them to be purely self-portraits but intead wants to allow the viewer their own interpretation. It also helps reduce the cost of making all these bronze castings when he has only a few molds. He’s done work in other media though I’ve not seen it. I don’t know if they are a succession of series for him, but I personally think an artist’s body of work is often that.
With their cartoon-like faces I can see why they appeal to children. They are certainly both joyous.and slightly creepy – maybe it’s the over-large mouths and closed eyes. They are laughing at their own joke …
Cartoon-like, yes, that appeals to children. And there’s an artist’s statement there somewhere.