{"title":"Media Reports","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"ren-hong-interpreting-the-power-of-symbols","title":"Ren Hong - Interpreting the Power of \"Symbols\" - Dahe Daily","description":"\u003cp\u003eIssued on 05\/09\/2009\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dahe Daily","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946282090777,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/jpg.jpg?v=1770156033"},{"product_id":"follow-pan-wei-gallery","title":"Follow Pan \u0026 Wei Gallery - Track Art","description":"\u003cp\u003eIssue 15 of \u003cem\u003eTrack Art\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Track Art","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946389635353,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/15.jpg?v=1774151918"},{"product_id":"from-china-by-stealth-anteprima","title":"From China by stealth - ANTEPRIMA","description":"","brand":"ANTEPRIMA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946392813849,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/0d6c0dfba5a866f49cc1fb6db9b0e9d2.jpg?v=1774151911"},{"product_id":"ren-hong-kaleidoscope-art-review","title":"Ren Hong: Kaleidoscope - Art Review","description":"\u003cp\u003eArt Review Issue 25\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRen Hong was born into performing arts commune at the beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution. Big red banners, ballets, and oversized proletariat posters formed the visual montage of Ren Hong’s early days while symphonic music and nationalistic choruses were the soundtrack. It was the artist’s multicolored memories of these controversial times that inspired her return to painting many decades later. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSoon after graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Art and Design in 1987, Ren Hong put aside the paintbrush for a practice in ceramics and eventually graphic design. It wasn’t until three years ago that she made a courageous comeback with a body of work entitled “Red Memories”. In these works, the artist presents nineteen-sixties and seventy-era images filtered through a pattern of repeated graphic icons. The works simultaneously express nostalgia for an era of idealism as well as the chaotic effect of that era.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe main images that compose Ren Hong’s works are the familiar icons of China’s sociopolitical past: pictures of Chairman Mao, diligent proletariat or revolutionary ballet characters. These popular images, almost exhausted of meaning by their redundancy, are not the subject of critical analysis, as they are in some other Chinese artists' works, but instead, express a romance with the artist’s own personal history, and most importantly are a pretext to paint. Ren Hong interprets these images in bold, lively hues. It is the same images that we’ve seen over and over, yet they are different, novel, shattered by scrupulously repeated, hand painted patterns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRen Hong’s formal strategy is double-layered. On one layer she renders the Cultural Revolution image while on the other, she meticulously spins a web of one, singular yet reoccurring graphic. Which layer is on the surface is an ambiguous visual game of push and pull. Almost like Bridget Riley’s Op art paintings from the sixties and seventies, Ren Hong’s formal technique results in a pulsating illusion where the foreground and background are in a continuous loop of interchanging positions. “Kaleidoscope”, the name of the show that recently opened in Shanghai, aptly describes the hallucinatory effect that these paintings have upon the viewer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile the main image is richly rendered, the patterned layer is simple and silhouetted. This layer is comprised of flying birds, arrows, butterflies images that connote a rising up, elation. These icons appear random at first, but upon closer investigation we sense a common theme remnant of the artist’s early nation-building days, where the message was Onwards Ho! toward a better and higher socialist plane. Today these patterns still connote a sense of optimism, but they also connect to the more contemporary sensibility of the simplified icon. This graphic treatment also shares similar concerns to the nineteen-eighties Pattern Painting movement in the United States where a renewed interest in handicraft as well as the purely decorative, helped shape intricate works. Ren Hong has used the Cultural Revolution as a similar point of departure. By juxtaposing modern Chinese folk images, she has renewed them as sophisticated works of art. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Art Review","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946396811545,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/art_review.jpg?v=1774151662"},{"product_id":"la-vie-en-rouge-ren-hongs-romanticized-reminiscences-thats-shanghai","title":"La vie en rouge - Ren Hong's romanticized reminiscences - that's Shanghai","description":"\u003cp\u003ethat's Shanghai June 2007\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"that's Shanghai","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946406215961,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/that_s.jpg?v=1774151902"},{"product_id":"ren-hong-international-ceramics-art-exhibition","title":"Ren Hong - International Ceramics Art Exhibition","description":"\u003cp\u003eTsinghua University International Ceramics Art Exhibition Beijing\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCollection of the 2000\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tsinghua University","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946411000089,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/8df1de4fb2f26a487a72745aef53f374.jpg?v=1774151896"},{"product_id":"a-red-sun-rise-in-the-east-voicity","title":"A Red Sun Rise in the East - Voicity","description":"\u003cp\u003eVoicity Issue 039 in 2008\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Voicity","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51946415980825,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/e68e708a643bf9457f81df655e7351eb.jpg?v=1770160643"},{"product_id":"the-2012-icif-sub-venue-pingshan-sculptural-art-creative-park","title":"The 2012 ICIF Sub-venue: Pingshan Sculptural Art \u0026 Creative Park","description":"","brand":"2012 ICIF","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51955981254937,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/2012_-1.jpg?v=1770348508"},{"product_id":"keleiscope","title":"Kaleidoscope","description":"\u003cp\u003eHistory is the family portrait of man. History is motivated by statesmen and entrepreneurs. History is written by intellectuals and recorded by artists. History is enacted and experienced by all. History is who and what we are today. It is in this spirit that Ren Hong turns to the memory of her childhood. Her art is a personal reflection of the ever-changing patterns of social and visual history. The recent focus of her kaleidoscope is the Cultural Revolution, arguably one of the most outstanding epochs of Chinese History.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps one of the reasons I have been drawn to Ren Hong’s work is the memory it conjures of my own exposure to the theatrical spectacle and schismatic chaos of the Cultural Revolution. I have fond memories of being taken by my father into a secret world of the Chinese Youth League housed above the Dixon Street restaurants of Sydney’s Chinatown, to view the news reels of the momentous pageants in Tiananmen Square and screenings of the latest model opera. For me, it was an entree into another world that set me apart from my peers, and I cherished it. Within my own family, there was much debate on the merits of the Cultural Revolution. My father, a peasant from a fishing village on Hainan Island, embittered by the hardships of war and poverty of his youth, had nothing but praise for Mao and New China. My mother, on the other hand, was a western bohemian intellectual who, despite her socialist sympathies, was horrified by the mass hysteria and violence of the Red Guards and recognized that she would have been one of the first to be humiliated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is over thirty years since the close of the Cultural Revolution, and it is now well and truly a part of the Chinese family folklore with seemingly little relevance to today. However, curiously, in the context of Chinese Contemporary Art, we have seen a plethora of images of Mao and Cultural Revolution iconography reemerge. One is compelled to ask the question, Why? Is it that artists are purely jumping on a commercial bandwagon of creating works that they know will appeal to an anachronistic Western perception of China?  Indeed, such was the power of the Cultural Revolution aesthetic that for many in the West, China is still Mao, unisex suits, and bicycles. Or is it an expression of something more?  Is it an expression of a profound sense of loss, lack of identity, and insecurity in an increasingly homogenized world where the only thing of value and object of aspiration is a Louis Vuitton bag?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor me, the strength of Ren Hong’s work lies in the intelligent and creative presentation of the past to inspire a commentary on the contemporary fabric of material well-being and social values. The princes and princesses of Ren Hong’s childhood affection were not real estate tycoons, gyrating pop singers, or lascivious film stars high on ecstasy, but rather ordinary workers, peasants, soldiers, who were non-material in aspiration, asexual in romance, joyful in shared poverty, and idealistic in their pursuit of a utopian dream of selflessness and egalitarianism. It is they who are the subject of Ren Hong’s portraiture and memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRen Hong’s unique visual language sets her work apart from others. Her powerful canvases are a marriage of classic portraiture, pop art, and contemporary graphics. The paintings are dualistic in nature. Superimposed on the images of her childhood fantasy is a contemporary graphic of repeated icons that march in unison across the base portrait. Selected icons include the hammer and sickle, rising sun, birds, arrows, and so on. It is the repeated icon that creates the kaleidoscopic effect of transporting one through time and space from present to past and vice versa. The repeated icon serves to break up the base image, the partial obliteration deconstructs the original image, and evokes the perception of a fading memory. The repeated icon itself creates a dramatic rhythm to the canvas and a perception of time moving on. The effect is simultaneously reminiscent of pixelation in the dissolution of a computer image on the one hand and the manually manipulated placard posters witnessed in the mass rallies of the Cultural Revolution on the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn recent months, Ren Hong has swung the focus of her kaleidoscope to more current issues and historic events, and within the context of this exhibition, two of the Olympic Torch series. Once again, they are portraits of ordinary workers standing in front of the ‘Bird’s Nest’ or Olympic Stadium.  A repeated graphic of the controversial Olympic Torch strikes across the canvas. Replacing Mao, the Bird’s Nest is the new icon of Modern China’s achievement and is to house a spectacle of world attention on a scale not seen since the Cultural Revolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Ren Hong in History, there is no wrong or right road, and in crisis, our strengths and weaknesses are recognized, and we realize a common destiny; in a sense, the Cultural Revolution was the catalyst for today. In Ren Hong’s expression and memory of an ideal, there is a recognition of the self as a medium of history and a contribution to humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Michell\u003cbr\u003eDirector \u0026amp; Curator\u003cbr\u003eStudio Rouge\u003cbr\u003eShanghai\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e28 May 2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ren Hong Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52135589708057,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/9a136b24aee6d194a3d4c670112d581e.jpg?v=1774151594"},{"product_id":"when-the-red-becomes-the-memory","title":"When the red becomes the memory","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;\"\u003e----About the standpoint and the meaning of Ren Hong’s “red memory series\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;\"\u003eSince the emergence of Pop Art, the use of various public images has become a habitual practice among artists. However, when post-modernism comes out, which challenges the modernism idea that emphasizes individual character and creation, we must recognize the importance of the standpoint and style coming from artists using public images. So when we reflect on the modern art in China in the 90s of the last century, it can be easily found that those figures, such as Mao, have been used by many artists in their works as a typical sign because they possess special political and cultural meanings. And this style has become a Chinese contemporary art phenomenon; thus, these artists’ standpoint will be the basic starting point when we discuss it. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003eIn general, around the 90s in the last century, political Pop Art expressed the artist's puzzle about the special period, 1989- 1992\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003e, who experienced the “85 New Wave Movement”, and also show their self-reflection and critique on Chinese reality after 1992, another revolutionary age with the market economy. After 1995, those critiques and reviews on the revolutionary age, perplexity with jokes, began to be amplified and formed a strong cultural strength. But this makes people who did not experience that time puzzled, what is the real history? The female artist Ren Hong shows us the red time that is full of passion and turbulence through her own style. In the “Red Memory Series”, the pigeons, arrow points, and other patterns are spread all over the painting, which presents us with a kind of visual effect as illusions. That complicated art language, but full of texture, informs those yearn for her childhood and the time that was filled with dream and romance. All of these are expressed by focusing on depicting Mao. So, in my opinion, it is the individual standpoint of Ren Hong’s work, and the key point that we will explain here. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003eIn my view, when it comes to using Mao’s images, there are differences from most contemporary artists in Ren Hong’s work. In brief, by observing the standpoint and style in “Red Memory Series”, there are some characteristics followed: first, Ren Hong used Mao’s images positively. Mao, in her description, stood in the rostrum of Tiananmen to wave hand in greeting, or talked with the populace intimately, or investigated in village. She attempted to return the original figure that impressed her, which was a gentle elder, a wisdom leader, an idol who was unable to substitute. Probably, there are no special meanings for those who experienced that time. However, if we stand in a contemporary point, compared with the images that created by the artists, who tended to political pop in the 90s in the last century, we will find Ren Hong’s unique. At the beginning, the artists often deal with Mao’s images from the perspective of self-reflection and critique with checks or criticism. In fact, all of these contain a profound reconsideration of that time. But Ren Hong expresses an opposite meaning, although she adopted a similar form. She used those public images that undertake the collective memory, nevertheless, she inclines to express childhood’s memory by individual angle. Certainly, this is obviously distinguished from works in the later period of political Pop Art, which are ridiculous and vulgar, or even smears Mao’s images. Second, when it comes to the art language, Ren Hong likes to choose red as the basic color tone in her paintings. She named her work “Red Memory” appropriately as well. Actually, red is not only the symbol of those days in “Red Memory Series”, but also represents the way of the artist recalling that time. In other words, when Mao’s head portrait was set off by innumerable red flags close to the wind, the painter not only recalled that time, but the reminiscence is also full of passion. Although we do not wave our fists again and the red flags do not swing with the wind, why is the red memory still so precious in the modern society, which is full of material desires and lures? When our society is in an unequal competition, which results in a large gap between the rich and poor, perhaps the Utopia in Mao’s thought shows us a more real meaning. To some extent, this is the real thing that Ren Hong wants to express with her recall of red time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003eMoreover, Ren Hong’s most distinguishing feature is the intense design feeling in her paintings. She puts flags, arrow points, pigeons, and other patterns in line again and again in whole pictures to create a kind of dreamlike beauty. Because the changes from color to pattern link up very well, which results in enormous aesthetic enjoyment, at the same time, the viewers will be surprised by the skills of expressing this kind of visual effect. But this aesthetic enjoyment does not come from the paintings themselves, but exists in the communication between viewers and paintings. At the same time, those massive same patterns’ juxtastandpoint continuously causes the vagueness in images, and also results in the visual effect in depth. So we could say that the whole appearance of the picture is similar to a jigsaw puzzle, just as the combination of people’s memory, which has been crushed down to fragments by historical wheels, or the painter depicted these yarns with patterns on canvas to pursue a kind of distant feeling to retrospect history. Anyhow, the excellent design in the painting creates a different visual enjoyment and shows the painter’s superior skills. Of course, the skill is only the way to reach an idea state, what Ren Hong really wants to do is that she wishes to build a real but also memorable world with art marks. As Pulust said in \u003cb style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;\"\u003e\u0026lt;Time flows like a stream\u0026gt;, “the true life is the rebirth of life, which comes from the recreation of memory.” \u003c\/b\u003eBut the differences between Pulust and Ren Hong lie in the fact that one depended on rich language, while the other was assisted by the reconstruction of images. However, the reconstruction in “Red Memory Series” basically hopes that the people who experience the revolutionary age can remember the complex and colorful meaning of their life forever, when we are living in such a time, without shouting slogans and waving fists, or even lacking self-reflection.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003e2007\/6\/8\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003e wrote in Chongqing by Zou Yuejin\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"\u003ePs: The bold part does not have the original text of the book\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ren Hong Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52147024265497,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/09a512e26168bdb5d765961a42664834.jpg?v=1774151739"},{"product_id":"the-landscape-of-the-soul-historical-consciousness-in-ren-hongs-art","title":"The Landscape of the Soul - Historical Consciousness in Ren Hong's Art","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe reconstruction of historical memory is the source of Ren Hong's creation. In her works, history is not merely a simple structure cast into the picture, but the spiritual history of the Republic and herself. Every person is both a natural being in the present society and a product of specific historical conditions. Therefore, the reproduction of history becomes an eternal theme for humanity. History influences, entangles, inspires, and shapes value orientations; history is the shadow of our bodies. In Ren Hong's \"Red Memory\" series, the strong political color, nostalgia, and heroism are her shared memories, united with the Republic. We cannot avoid or forget those vibrant years: Chairman Mao, model operas, the defense of Zhenbao Island, combat heroes in her paintings, and the focus on major world events: the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein, 9\/11, and Obama's election…etc. We cannot crudely interpret all of this as the artist merely expressing for the sake of expression, remembering for the sake of remembering, but rather as an intellectual examining the DNA within our flesh and blood, tracing the hidden traces within our spiritual history. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Forgetting means being condemned. And all of this comes from the brush of a woman with a delicate and somewhat frail appearance—truly unexpected.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince the New Era, artists, to rebel against past authority, have strived to break free from the shackles of \"serving politics,\" and distancing themselves from politics has become the dream of artists pursuing pure art. However, Ren Hong has stubbornly held onto the political string, invariably depicting politics and people's livelihoods in both the \"past tense\" and the \"present tense,\" a focus so different from that of women of her age. While female painters are drawing on their own life experiences and familiar themes—painting scenes of domestic life, daily life, travel, expressing kinship, love, and friendship; painting still lifes, landscapes, and everyday life—expressing their own feelings… and seeking that lost female \"self,\" she remains completely unconcerned, still immersed in reminiscing about history, focusing on social, political, and cultural themes, expressing a unique \"self.\" Is this truly the painting of a woman? Is what she expresses and focuses on a larger political issue? Is it a larger kind of love? Is it now that we think of Xiang Yu, unable to bear crossing the Yangtze River?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile the delicate sentiments and small melodies temporarily escape grand narratives and enter into the inner self, this also leads to another extreme: forgetting the responsibilities of intellectuals. In our traditional aesthetic framework, male art is considered a manifestation of masculinity, while female art belongs to the feminine school; men should excel in powerful momentum and grand structures, while women prefer gentle and delicate expression; men should be rational, while women are emotional; their focuses differ: men prioritize fame and fortune, while women prioritize love and family. This traditional \"dualistic\" aesthetic thinking mode is deeply rooted in the Chinese consciousness, leading to the fixed mindset of \"male strength and female weakness\" in aesthetics. Ren Hong breaks free from this convention; her paintings, in the pursuit of \"self,\" transcend gender cultural differences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer works lose their delicate sentiments and small melodies, and have no time for narcissistic embellishment. Only a longing for long-lost, simple emotions and a reverence for the spirit of an era, can help her re-evaluate her life's values. Born during the Cultural Revolution, Ren Hong was immersed in the fervor of the \"red ocean\" from the moment she became aware of the world. With her parents, both actors, constantly busy performing, she could only find joy with a group of friends in the theater troupe compound through playing musical instruments, singing, or painting, striving to acquire a \"skill,\" and spending a vibrant and colorful childhood in a competitive learning atmosphere. These beautiful years, filled with ideals and clear goals, became an unforgettable memory for her. As an adult, she was admitted to the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, where a multifaceted and solid foundation in art allowed her to navigate her later artistic creations with ease.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRen Hong's paintings have a strong socio-political dimension, but they are not thematically dependent on any particular political authority. Her work is influenced by political pop art, but it differs from the political pop art that flourished in China during the 1980s and 90s. Many works, largely imitating Western models, appropriate and replace historical and revolutionary themes, using irony, satire, and banter to reflect on and critique political history. Ren Hong, however, does not use this method to satirize or critique history. Instead, she uses fragments of past historical and cultural images of current events as \"symbols\" that hold childhood memories, reminiscing about the innocent joy of her youth and the ideals and pursuits of a young girl. These works, called \"red memories,\" are merely vehicles for revisiting old dreams, carrying a gentle, beautiful warmth and imbued with a sublime, even sacred, quality. They stir the hearts of a generation with similar experiences, evoking a glimmer of warmth and idealism that remained amidst the bloody political struggles. History sometimes takes detours, but the people in history were kind and sincere, leaving behind some traces worthy of reflection and remembrance in the passage of time. Her works, though highly individualized, are also a collective political memory of a generation, perhaps a reaction against the \"parody\" prevalent in some contemporary art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRen Hong's paintings are not mere reproductions of old photographs of past historical fragments. She uses photographs and propaganda posters of news figures from specific historical periods as her source material, selecting iconic images that remain in people's memories. These images are merely \"symbols\" in her paintings, not specific individuals or events in a general sense. The meaning of these symbols has been sublimated or refined into a spirit of the times. Her paintings of Mao Zedong, Red Guards, model operas, and war heroes undoubtedly express the sincere yet naive fervor of people during the Red Era. Later paintings of the Gulf War, 9\/11, the Chinese Olympics, and Obama's inauguration in the United States express her reflections on the changing world at the turn of the century. The images she chooses are sufficient to represent the hot topics of a historical period and the spirit of the times they embody—this is the meaning inherent in her \"symbols.\" If she merely remained at the level of symbolic reproduction, superficially copying old paintings and photographs, it would lack artistic value. How can we bridge the gap between the \"past tense,\" \"present tense,\" \"progressive tense,\" and even the \"future tense\" in the minds of contemporary people, connecting them into a chain of thought and expanding the space of the image's connotation? She once again utilized the power of \"symbols,\" creating a dual use of \"symbols.\" First, she used these symbolic imprints of the times as the main image of the work, then superimposed them with a pattern composed of four-dimensionally continuous abstract symbol codes. These abstract symbol codes have an intrinsic connection with the main image; for example, the heroic image is superimposed with a pine tree symbol pattern; the pattern composed of arrow symbols signifies certain movements and speeds, such as \"catching up with Britain and the United States\"; the symbols of doves, torches, and party emblems all correspond to the core connotation of the main image. These symbols that make up the pattern, such as what the pine tree signifies and what the arrows point to, are all conventional symbols with symbolic meaning in the context of the time, a more abstract spiritual symbol. Under the influence of this dual symbolism, the image not only estranges the familiar main symbols in the text but also imbues them with new meaning. The main image, covered by symbolic patterns, evokes a sense of illusion and isolation, creating a historical spatial feel. Therefore, her work is not a simple reproduction of historical images from memory, but rather leaves room for reflection and imagination while revisiting the past. This dual use of symbols, in the conceptual contemporary pop art, subverts the dogmas and patterns of traditional revolutionary painting with its unique artistic form, forging its own path.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the surface, her symbolic coding patterns seem to utilize the learning resources of the Academy of Arts and Crafts, naturally and cleverly incorporating craft techniques into painting to create new visual effects. However, a deeper examination reveals that this reflects Ren Hong's psychological needs and spiritual direction during her creative process. The artist says that when she inadvertently discovered this language form, she experienced a spiritual epiphany and continued to pursue it tirelessly. Why does she so tirelessly repeat the same symbolic symbols, using an infinite amount of \"time\" to accumulate and encode them in a complex and gradual way? This impulse and choice in artistic creation can be seen as a psychological need of the painter. When she enters a creative state, it's like \"a loving mother's thread,\" each stitch imbued with affection; like a farmer \"working from sunrise to sunset,\" laboring tirelessly... In this repetitive manual labor, the painter experiences \"meaning\" as if meditating. The meaning within is infinite, and the greatest infinity enters into nothingness, the so-called \"formless great image\"—what a vast spiritual space this is! Ren Hong may have achieved transcendence of reality and surpassed herself in this repetitive manual labor, achieving a kind of healing and peace for body and mind, realizing self-redemption in art. Of course, she no longer uses handcraft to create patterns; she can easily cover them with a projector. However, how can this replace the outpouring of a life poured with emotion and thought? Making and painting are ultimately not on the same level of discourse; she realized the predicament of her art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow to transcend herself? She designed and implemented various breakthrough plans. First, she returned to her original profession of ceramics, using elegant blue and white porcelain and gorgeous polychrome porcelain to create a series of junk food works titled \"Hamburgers,\" and a series of monsters with human heads and crocodile bodies titled \"Beautiful Crocodiles,\" using startling images to critique contemporary reality. However, she is even more passionate about reflecting on history and culture. After \"Red Memories,\" she created a series of \"fashionable beauties\" from the 1920s and 30s, and in these images of older beauties, she embodies her reflections on the path of women's lives. In recent years, she has also wandered among cultural relics to search for historical traces. She can rush to Kaifeng on the first day of the Lunar New Year to photograph the ruins of the old city walls that are about to be demolished, search for the tomb of Lü Buwei in the overgrown weeds, and walk the route of the Three Kingdoms to converse with the ancients. She also travels back and forth along railway lines, using her camera to photograph old train stations around the city, or abandoned and soon-to-disappear old train stations, such as Tongxian Station, Liangxiang Station, Xinle Station, Yangcun Station, Wangdu Station… She managed to find dozens, even hundreds, of these historical relics that were on the verge of disappearing from people's lives and sight. Why was she so attached to these old things? Was it merely a curious hobby, or a conscious historical awareness? In any case, thanks to her tireless collection, people are not losing this cultural memory due to the disappearance of historical artifacts. Cultural memory is the way a nation compiles its historical information; only by preserving cultural memory can history remain in people's hearts and be passed down from generation to generation. Once people lose this cultural memory, where will they find their roots? In this sense, she consciously took on a responsibility to record history and culture. It is remarkable that this woman, who grew up surrounded by the ancient operas performed by her parents, was not swayed by the romantic tales of talented men and beautiful women, becoming a fragile and weak woman. Instead, she was cultivated with a historical and cultural awareness, developing into a broad-minded, far-sighted, independent woman who dared to accept hardship and face challenges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer art is still \"on its way,\" with potential for development in many areas. I believe she will break through her current limitations and reach a brilliant new artistic space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApril 28, 2009, Beijing, Mingjia Garden\u003cbr\u003eTao Yongbai\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ren Hong Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52147025772825,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/files\/1_7b3f413e-7975-4c42-8768-10307aeafea9.jpg?v=1774151855"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0987\/0268\/8537\/collections\/e68e708a643bf9457f81df655e7351eb.jpg?v=1770162096","url":"https:\/\/renhongarts.com\/collections\/media-reports.oembed","provider":"Ren Hong Arts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}