In Greek myths, Femme Fatale is often referred to as the seductive female. With fatal beauty or charm, they usually seduce men to fall head over heels and go through fire and water for them without any complaint. As oriental saying suggests, in the male-dominated society, men who fall into trouble and even get utterly discredited because of attractive beauty call women as the root of troubles.
In Chinese, the evolution of appellation is very interesting, from “comrade” in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, to lady and gentleman, to beauty, handsome, professor, which is in fact a subtle change of social value. The value of “dignity” is also reflected in the change of language. Some buzzwords are also very interesting. Once, Chinese like to say “high-end”, but now we say “high-grade” in almost all occasions.
At the end of 2013, Mr. Hiroshi MINAMISHIMA planned a Chinese-Japanese artists group exhibition about Femme Fatale, when Shun Art Gallery was located at M50, No.50 Moganshan Road. Chinese artists SUN Liang and JING Shijian, as well as Japanese artists Mika SHIMAUCHI and Akira ISHIGURO were invited to show their works in the old gallery. Unfortunately, Mr. MINAMISHIMA pass way at an early age in early 2016, so a series of exhibitions were planned in Shanghai and Tokyo in memory of this well-known curator.
Following Mika SHIMAUCHI’s solo exhibition “Big Romance”, one of Hiroshi MINAMISHIMA Memorial Exhibitions, SUN Liang was invited to hold a solo exhibition as the second memorial exhibition.
In Shanghai, it is still sweltering even after the end of the dog days. The Apollonian lake surface forms a sharp contrast with the mysterious depths of the lake. Nietzsche’s emphasis on Dionysus, in a sense, reflects the common cognition of modern people. Alas, men!
Let’s interpret Sun Liang’s strong rouge in a breezy autumn afternoon in Shanghai.
Shun at Kyoto
