The 1st time I came accross one of these porcelain pieces from chinese artist Liu Jianhuan, was during one of my first visits to the 798 art district in Beijing (circa 2007), having randomly entered some art gallery (initially thought it was a shop... : hurray for understanding your surroundings- *always blame the lost in translation concept* thank you sofia coppola).
I didnt realize at the time that they were pieces of art. The piece that caught my eye was a large traditional porcelain serving dish with a headless/armless female body dressed in a 'qipao' & languorously lying there, smack in the middle of the large dish. I remember (stupidly) I thought 'hmm cool, I really want to buy this dish'.
of course, i could have, except at a hefty hefty price. it wasn't 'a serving dish' dumbass.
I've since seen other versions of his work in numerous places.
Anyhow (!) i stumbled accross his work today ( & the porcelain series (which are i think from 2000-2001) through a contact's posting on flickr. nice!
maybe i should have invested that day.
loves.
"Liu Jianhua creates small-scale sculptures from fibreglass and porcelain. Trained as a ceramicist from the age of fifteen, he is well-known for several series of works of headless and armless female figures dressed in cheongsams and high heels and lying in erotic poses. His works comment on attitudes to women as well as the place of China on the contemporary art scene and political world stage."
Article on Li Jianhuan's art:
http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?1487#
*** oh, google just told me that *** :
it looks like he is at the vancouver biennale (vancouver has a biennale?! cool!) - those pillows aka seats are GREAT !
http://blog.vancouverbiennale.com/?p=569
