Edelweiss are tiny white Alpine flowers, modest, bright, perennial. The exhibition "Edelweiss" features very personal works at Xuhui Art Museum through March 31.
Thirteen female artists from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou display their paintings, installation, sculpture and photos.
"We were born in the early 1970s and 1980s," says Shanghai artist Wang Yuhong. "Unlike those big names, we are more like small edelweiss, but we have own our firm attitude towards art."
Unlike the 1960s generation known for their strong feelings --love-it, hate-it-- the younger generation is milder.
"I am a typical person of the 1970s generation," says Wang. "I don't care much about the outside world, but I am more sensitive to the 'voice' from my own heart."
These works don't address the "big" questions and harsh reality: There are few sharp edges. They depict a small world only belonging to them, where they lament, sigh and indulge. Whether in Shanghainese Chu Weiqing's canvas titled "Puppet" featuring a serene woman in black holding playing cards or the exotic pose of a girl in sunglasses in Shu Yan's sculpture, all seem to mirror the inner life.
"Everyone has a pain in their heart, and I am no exception," says Shu from Jiangxi Province. "I want to build up a cloud-castle between reality and illusion where I can comfort my heart."
Unlike Chu and Shu, Wang uses a little wooden manikin, like an artists model, in her installation titled "Naked Image." The familiar figure, often seen in IKEA, leans on a burned violin, elsewhere on a broken chair. It conveys a message of sadness and exhaustion, as of one who has lost identity in a fast-changing world.
"I really doubt there is a clear link between traditional and contemporary art," Wang says. "So I linger between the two."
Shanghai art photographer Shen Wenting's "Exit" breezily captures the exits around her during her study in France. The door, window and lookout all become the "exits" of her inspiration.
"It is very hard to define 'female art'," says art critic Ma Lin, "because the term may have two meanings. One is linked with femaleness and the other is pejorative."
"This exhibition only tries to approach female artists at a distance," says Pang Fei, curator of the show. "It is more like the murmurings from a group of young women. But everything is sincere and true without any guise."
来源：雅昌艺术网
