- Artist: Liu Zhan, Kuang Jun, Tan Tianwei (Unmask Group)
- Incomplete Horseman
- Stainless Steel
- Lifesize
- 2011
Collectively called the Unmask
Group, artists Liu Zhan, Kuang Jun, and Tan Tianwei met while studying at the
Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. They began working together in
2001, producing works in both marble and stainless steel. They employ a style
which relies heavily on the use of negative space, their works challenging the
viewer with what is absent just as much as they do with what is there (www.juncha.net/unmask/).
The group’s challenging style is
meant to be “Isolated from, if not opposed to, the outside world, forming a
negative virtual environment” (www.juncha.net/unmask/). It forces the viewer to
complete the art in their own minds, leaving negative space as a blank canvass
where the viewer is invited to paint their own image.
By providing an incomplete image,
and challenging the viewer to fill in the missing pieces, the Unmask Group
creates a certain intimacy with their audience, allowing them to be a part of
the creative process. By presenting a piece that comes as close to a two dimensional
shell of their subject as possible, the Unmask Group’s style challenges the
traditional three dimensionality of sculpture as a whole.
Because of their breathtaking and
sensual use of negative space in a style of art that has traditionally
presented heavy, fully formed works, the Unmask Group has successfully challenged
our notion of sculpture as an art form, while simultaneously elevating the
style to a new, modern level.
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