Microcosm, 2008
15’ 57”
Miao Xiaochun is primarily known for his eerie photographs of contemporary China, which often borrow from iconic works of Western art to elaborate allegorical landscapes that evoke the dramatic changes in his homeland, and envision a new Golden Age. Microcosm employs high-end computer technology to create a 3D animation that proceeds with this formal and conceptual research. It is based on a loose -yet, at times, literal- interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s famous late 15th century painting, The Garden of Earthly Delight (a painting in the collection of Museo del Prado), itself a sardonic and fantastic vision of a social structure. This piece blends all kinds of visual references to Western and traditional Chinese aesthetics, to real and virtual worlds, so as to create a narrative that spells the complex state of society and culture in contemporary China. One deciphers a state of transitions, in which all opposites co-exist and create unique conditions that are simultaneously appealing and terrifying, seductive and repulsive.
