Kwan Sheung Chi, Lilies, 12 different branches of artificial lilies, Dimension variable, 2012

Eternal Rays of the Sun series were works Geng Jianyi has prepared specifically for the 1993 Venice Biennale. The work may seem to embody the “political pop” style, when in fact the artist’s emphasis was not to highlight the red, bright and glorious background of the Cultural Revolution and its representation of the farmers, worker, and soldiers class. Instead, it concealed a visual game where the center of each painting consists of the shifting foci of the group photograph on the backside of the 5 yuan bill. As if these paintings are five fixed frames of an animation, the radiant background could thus be taken out of the political myth and be restored to its initial impetus in visual design. In this sense, this work was meant to disenchant, rather than creating a myth to demystify, it confronted the experiences of a time through an individual’s everyday sentiments, this was the ingenuity Geng Jianyi has preserved throughout his lifetime.

Wuhan Ecological Art Park is a place frequented by an illegal pyramid scheme organization. The salesperson would lead a tour and give random meanings to the public sculptures in order to persuade the public to join their organization. The artist interrupted the tour with similarly or even more absurd acts, such as talking to a bronze figure. The salesperson was freaked out by Zhu’s performance and left. Zhu then took over and told a story to the crowd about the battles between the real estate and East Lake, rise of central China, Capitalism, and the desire for success.