shi wei CV

Shi Wei's work strongly comments on the modern women, noting the growing trend of openness in female Asian sexuality, nevertheless caught up in the need to conform. The ambiguity of the female experiences is at the very core of the artist's exploration in his works. The image in his canvas appears unmistakably familiar, the ideal skinny woman, donning covers of women's magazines or selling men's products. However, the women here are not those envied and fetichized in turn by men and women, they are not images, but vulnerable, real selves of women today.With its reform and liberalisation, Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes in the past few decades. Instead of valorising labour as the sole worthy object of pursuit as in the past, its women are now turned towards consumption, fashion and desire. Inspired by the fashion industry and using technology, Shi Wei's paintings depict skinny women sometimes holding erotic poses and places the meaning of beauty under scrutiny. Are these women beautiful and happy, or are they suffering and paying a price for their vanity? These are just some of the questions put forth by the artist in this exhibition. Utterly contemporary and unyieldingly honest, Shi Wei conjures up distorted images containing uneasy juxtapositions and disjunctures, and serves up an uncanny reflection on the issues and costs of living in a modern, consumeristic society.