ILLUSTRATED:

Since the 90's of the last century the biggest change to Chinese society has come from the accelerating pace of urbanization. From one perspective, this is an internal balancing of pressures by Chinese society after liberalization, but from another it is also the most direct impact of global economic integration on a developing country. An acceleration in urbanization will always inevitably result in changes being forced upon society's morality and concepts, with today's popular culture or consumer culture undoubtedly affecting all aspects of contemporary Chinese society. When given shape, it creates a different kind of citizen culture and imagery.

Qu Guangci is one of the top young contemporary sculptors. With pseudo-historical symbols as his personal motifs, his sculptures actually use the development of modern Chinese cities as their background, providing a retrospective on urbanization itself. His creative themes mostly come from the young people seen in everyday city life. Qu's focus on reality and how city people live, with his works expressing the conflict and paradox between modern people's reality and their inner worlds. It also expresses a keen interest in the new citizen culture that has developed against the backdrop of urbanization. Qu Guangci's artwork focuses on the fusion of citizen imagery with historical imagery, with historical imagery used to critique the citizen imagery and vice versa. Through a simple overlapping of the imagery's implications, he provokes thought on the connections between urbanization and our everyday life.

In the "Last Dinner - Mourn", Qu Guangci makes the fanaticism of the Red Guards more "obtuse", then repackages it. His piece is like a prank that left behind no evidence but is filled with something mean yet humorous. His artwork rejects the vulgar treatment used by contemporary art, instead continuing on with all seriousness his work of remodeling imagery no matter how nonsensical the subject matter is. The meaning of Qu's work is in how he rediscovers things that have been submerged under the overwhelming deluge of city living. Through this he shows us how urban culture, citizen lifestyles and past cultures and lifestyles are quite similar. From worshipping the Great Leader to worshipping consumer products, one form of fanaticism has just been transformed into another - this is the theme that Qu Guangci is seeking to express. By fighting free of urban culture's suffocation of art, his remodeling and revision explores how, despite the oppressive influence of the cultural industry, art can still speak out.