When something is overdrawn, painted satirically or packaged in subtle irony, the reactions usually range from moral indignation to frenetically cheered approval. And with that, the actual goal of the creator of such a storm is then usually achieved. Thus, the Chinese-born artist Hou Guanbin creates sculptures that he quite self-confidently juxtaposes with a prevailing ideal in a deliberately exaggerated manner. By means of his figural creations, through which, for example, he postulates a certain ideal of beauty that is obviously and inevitably borrowed from the male fantasy world and, in combination, then reveals itself as a being with a special destiny, a staged clichédness is revealed. And it hits the target
Because beauty as a concept is timeless in itself, but seen for itself, it is dependent on a very specific, current epoch, the cultural circle that shapes us and our individual upbringing: but also on our very own behavior, our pre-loaded, learned view of people and groups, cultures, circumstances, objects and some peculiarities that surround us: that would be worth considering first of all, without making a claim to completeness of this suggestion for consideration. Thus, Hou Guanbin’s socially critical, satirical figures also cast a striking but penetrating glance at a society that refuses a fundamental renewal of state and society and that must constantly problematize anew identity-forming criteria of everyday life such as social role behavior, clothing, or sexuality: This is because the development process of a society stalls again and again, since the old engine as the drive of development runs completely out of round, but always on.