Exhibition | Lei Xue Ceramic Juxtaposition Featuring Looney Tunes

VIENNA, Austria — It’s hunting season at Chinese artist Lei Xue’s exhibition at Galerie Hubert Winter (November 18 – December 23, 2009) featuring traditional Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) blue and white porcelain vessels, though these comical ceramics tell a more subversive tale with a unique juxtaposition.

Xue’s hyper-subversive vases include Bugs Bunny dressing up in drag, dolling himself up in a photoshop-like application to him adorning a hijab armed with two AK-47’s and (digital) cameras rolling (possibly preparing to unveil his next course of action to the world) to his cyber shokushu goukan. Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, and even Disney’s Donald Duck, make appearances in Xue’s work.

“The best way to get to the essence of the mind is at the same time to observe past, present and future. To arrive at the future, which is uncertain, means to analyze the clear past and the not so clear present.”

Much like Ai Weiwei’s dropping of a Han Dynasty Urn, these subversive images embedded in Ming-like vessels illustrate the effects of the Chinese cultural revolution irreverently employing pop-culture images of American tomfoolery to adorn traditional Chinese vessels.

There’s a Calvin and Hobbes comic that came to me as a I was writing this post. The comic cleverly elucidates the juxtaposition Xue employed in her work. Check it out.

Do you love or loathe these works from the worlds of contemporary ceramics and contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.