Aesthetician Tells You Why Artists Need Team Vitality
“Aesthetician Tells You Why Artists Need Team Vitality” studies how collectivism functions in Chinese corporate culture. Chinese collectivism emerged during the Mao era in an effort to remove class divisions. The promotion of collectivism originated from the worship of the military, which peaked during the Cultural Revolution and turned into a way to realize a cult of personality. Such tradition deeply affected generations of Chinese people. After the Chinese Economic Reform period, collectivism and military training were reintroduced into Chinese society by entrepreneurs who were raised during the Mao era as a way to improve workers’ efficiency and enhance their loyalty. In such a capitalist context, collectivism has ironically turned into a method to exploit employees. This piece uses those collectivist strategies to impose authority on art production, posing the questions of standards, worship of power, and free expression.
Xia Chengan is a visual artist and graphic designer based in Chicago and Shanghai. By utilizing printed matter, photography, video, and installation, his work celebrates the “trash aesthetics” born from Chinese low cultural phenomena. With the methodology of appropriation, collage, and building ironic narrative, Chengan’s work critiques the fetishism manifested in such low culture, which involves broader discussion of consumerism, technology, tradition, and politics. He received his MFA in Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.