Art Assignment- Ah Xian ‘China China Bust no.10’

Ah Xian is a Chinese born artist who has been based in Sydney since 1989. He was originally born in Beijing in 1960 and initially trained as a painter. Ah Xian is now a famous contemporary artist intrigued by the human body and how contemporary art can make it meaningful. One of the many sculptures he has created is the ‘China China Bust no.10’, which he produced in 1998 as part of a ten-piece installation for the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAG. The artwork is 31x 41x 24cm in measurements and is life-sized. The sculpture is a Porcelain body-cast with hand painted under-glaze blue decoration. It is a vibrant blue with touches of white within the patterns. The bust is a bald Chinese man with a star-like pattern surrounding his nose, which on closer inspection is a traditional Chinese dragon. The shoulders and neck have a wave pattern across it.

China China Bust no. 10 (1998) is a contemporary sculpture with the concepts of nature and environmentalism, like the majority of Xian’s artworks. He uses a traditional porcelain cast, in a similar way to his other sculptures. The eyes are closed and the expression that Xian has used on the bust’s face is, like many other sculptures of Xian’s, expressionless. Colours such as blue and white are used to paint the patterns. Ah Xian used curved, wavy and twisted lines within the artwork and shaped the bust to be a simple upper body sculpture, with the head being bald and no great detail used within the shape of the sculpture. He used the space of the bust wisely and painted the majority of the sculpture. The artwork is covered in different patterns and shapes, which makes the porcelain bust very interesting and intriguing to look at. The texture Xian uses on the bust is smooth due to the glaze on the sculpture. The pattern surrounding the nose is a traditional Chinese dragon, which represents China and communism.

Ah Xian conveys his opinions on urbanization, environmentalism and the human condition of materialism through his careful consideration of design and composition. The colour used in the artwork shows that the bust has to do with nature and the water with the lines and patterns along with the colours used. The size of the artwork is life-size. Xian does this because he wants you to interpret that the sculpture is a human to make you understand the meaning behind the artwork, which is based around China and communism. Ah Xian made the texture of the bust to be smooth glazed and flat. “In Ah Xian's work, casts of the human body are a background upon which he projects traditional Chinese decorative designs such as dragons, birds and flowers, and landscapes. By making these designs resemble tattoos, Ah Xian makes a