I want to know what infinity is - Shen Shaomin, 2011
Silica gel, electrical machinery, wooden deck chair, industrial salt
78cm x 145cm x 58cm
This work is made by Shen Shaomin, an artist based in Sydney and Beijing. He is an artist who uses real skeletons to make creatures. The creatures he made have very realistic appearance.
I discovered the above artwork – “I want to know what infinity is” at Hong Kong Art Fair 2012 which is located in Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre. The realistic old naked women was very eye-catching to attract people to surround and watch. There were many people around it so I have discovered the artwork.
This artwork contains a very old woman made by silica gel. It looks very alike a real human. The old woman has a mechanical respiratory system. With the human size, human skin texture and the motion of breathing, the old woman seems alive. Apart from this, the old woman model is naked. Every part of her can be seen, including her breast and the private parts. Thus, every audience is like watching a real naked old women sleeping on a wooden deck chair and feel strange and horrible.
The old woman seems extremely old but healthy, which is very unnatural. I think the artist wants the audience to think about their life, the world around them. Our life quality is becoming better and better with the help of advanced technology. The average life – expectancy of human has an increase tendency. With the impact of technology, human lives are becoming more and more unnatural too. Also, the old woman is naked. I think the artist wants to show the characteristic of nowadays people – chasing freedom. Nowadays people are open-minded and their acceptance is higher.
I was shocked by the artwork since it looks too alike a real human. And it is very impressive that the artist is so bold to show his artwork in naked. I think the work is successful to catch the audience eyes, and lead people to think about the impact of human’s development. I found that the response of the people around the artwork is very interesting. After their first sight of the artwork, their facial expression all turned very unbelievable. Then they will walk very fast to get close to the artwork as soon as possible, and started to discuss about the artwork. Most of the audience is curious about the material of the artwork. Some of them (mostly women) feel very scare since they thought it might be a real creature or thought the artwork is disgusting.
I have done some research on the artist – Shen Shaomin. He collected the bones from a variety of animals and use them to create a new creature (see pictures below).
I think his artwork is very special and unique. Those creatures are very strange. But look very real and lively. He is a man who with infinity imaginations and wanted to create things.
His work made me think about another artist – Damien Hirst. Damien also does a lot of installation art. I think about him because he has artwork – For the love of God(2007). It is a artwork in skull shape and is full of diamond. He use the eternity of diamond to represent the timeless of death. Compare to Shen’s artwork, Damien’s topics are more related to death and Shen’s is more related to lives. But they both use skeleton to do art.
