Drugs 毒品

Creator(s)

Guang-Yi WANG 王广义

Preview

Date

1995

Format

Slide

Exhibition Event Title

APERTO 95

Date of Exhibition Event

1995

Location of Exhibition Event

Santa Monica Art Center Barcelona, Spain

Materials

Wooden boxes, faux fur, pictures, lights, and more

Description

At the center of a high-wall, a niche is giving the necessary space for WANG Guangyi's installation "Drug". The installation is comprised of roughly three vertical parts -- approximates each other in size in each part. The bottom of the work (on top of its base) is a rectangular block with illuminated letters "DRUGS" inscribed. Above it a (presumably) television is showing images in green (illegible from the photographs). And further up the "DRUGS" block repeats, echoing the installation's bottom. Given the installation's placement, audiences are asked to angel their gazes upward to receive the work. "Drug", the artist himself says, is an exploration of humans' interaction with their social culture. Abusing drug itself is merely a behavior, a personal behavior. When the behavior is placed in a certain social context that disapproves it, however, drug abuse induces guilt and self-loathing from individuals, which interestingly, as WANG says, would ultimately catalyze the behavior (the guilt itself!). (Wang, 关于“清理人文热情”, 1990, 江苏画刊, available on https://wangguangyi.artron.net/news_detail_178648). (Jerry Wu'23).