Unlike from the past works such as Standard Age, Our Generation, City Dream, and so on, Soft Violence is a new series of sculptures from the well-known young artist Gao Xiaowu. This is a new experiment since 2008, and there is a new direction in form and concept. Those works tend to show social criticism in their connotations, by diversification and installation in their form. Gao Xiaowu's artistic point of view has turn from the virtual physical state to thinking and analysis of society and culture. Those of which have concern the problems that are caused by the development of urbanization. Unfortunately, such things have often been ignored. He interprets visual images, language mode, media discourse and the psychological reactions as a soft violence. Thus, what is the soft violence? In the words of Gao Xiaowu, Soft violence would mean a hidden violence which is difficult to detect but dominate and affect upon people. More specifically, it refers to a form of violence appears with a soft, admonitory, comfort, suggesting and calm posture. It shows a variety of forms which could be related to the image, or language-related or associated with the attitude, or information-related, or associated with psychological, or associated with power, and so on. Eventually, people cannot feel and experience the motivation because it is simply difficult to find the characteristics of soft violence.
It is based on this understanding that Gao Xiaowu began his new sculpture project, while his artistic concept has been freed from the delight aesthetics which relies on the animation that turned into a language form of serious critique. This change is based on his insight into the changes of the real world and expression on the psychological reactions, i.e. to discover and to feel the contemporary spiritual state from his own experience - the human misunderstanding, anxiety, confusion, suffering, uneasiness, and etc. In this modern era, material wealth in China has become so abundant due to the advancement of science and technology which greatly improve our convenience in almost any aspect. However, our general feeling of happiness is no far greater than that ubiquitous sense of anxiety and stress. So what caused the lack of happiness? Perhaps the outward expansion of Western-centered modernity is the reason. It is diffusing around the world constantly, immingling and building a new social system, but when people embrace it with enthusiasm, it will execute tyrannical worst on people in different ways. In this age, contemporary violence is different from the vintage form of passive violence, as it is showing positive characteristics in daylight, going ahead in transparent and open ways like media and viruses, operating, overflowing, diffusing and transferring. From this perspective, Gao Xiaowu found and experienced daily existence of soft violence. It has seemed to absorb people into all kinds of troubles which difficult to get rid of. There are usually found in the streets, television, Internet and magazine advertising, intense work pace, squeezed urban space, congested public transport, inflation under pressures, the ubiquitous information control, and people who become house slaves. In fact, these phenomena reflect the idea that mental and psychological violence is hidden. Therefore, the artist perception of ‘soft violence’ is that people seem having difficulty to percept and feel its presence. Gao Xiaowu refined and condensed visual representation from language and forms, and portrayed his objects in a specific social context which made his works more relevant and critical.
Artist Gao Xiaowu is starting from this line of sight which expresses cultural signs that are related with soft violence in urban life. He forms an organic link of his solo exhibition with five works, Chromosome, Model, Waste, Soft Violence and Discrepancy. These five works express philosophic discussion of soft violence from different views.
In his recent works ‘Chromosome’, Gao Xiaowu depicts and expresses cute and innocent state of newly born baby by making realistic sculptures. In fact, he did not emphasize the baby's cute image itself deliberately, but to express the focus of the right concerned with the birth of life. For instance, the birth of the baby means it has been deprived of any possibility of negativity and resistance. Gao’s works have the implications analysis and expressions of death itself associated from general meaning of human existence. As quoted by Jean Baudrillard, “This is the pursuit of physical pleasure and reproduction needs.”On the other hand, Gao Xiaowu compares the baby’s living as a process of experiencing a variety of soft violence, a process of experiencing and fighting against soft violence.
Echoing with the sculpture Chromosome, Gao Xiaowu’s work, Model, is directly involving into real issues – reflections on living space and living consumption in city. With a approach of design, he takes the problem of luxury model houses, and put the designed model house into a huge skull, and there remains many square opening on the skull shape, every opening become a window of every model house, through which one can see the luxurious lifestyle inside. Obviously, artist takes the model as an example of living space and ideal consumption. However, this model is soft violence full of temptations and controls, because of it is artificially designed ideal and standard of consumption, and consumers plunge into it involuntarily. Of course, the black skull and model houses have another layer of symbolism - Life, Time, Space and Death. Confronted with all these, people are deprived of, or cannot call the shots. This is unifying into a visual framework of soft violence by artist subjectively.
In this solo exhibition, it is noteworthy that Gao Xiaowu has created an installation work called Waste. While it is easy to think of industrial pollution, which is in fact an abstract idea related with the human body, his work leaves out the physical state of body, but referential meanings are related to human mouth and digestion. In concept, Waste has more metaphorical expressions, that is, human development need to be consumed or digested, also need a good excretion. As the artist once said, “at some point, excretion is more important that eating!” It is a Dadaist way of language performance.
Some would say that Soft Violence is the largest and most important project in his entire exhibitions. From his own experience, he finds that production and development of automotive provides convenience and efficiency to people. People have become dependent on it even more but it also brings multiple physical and psychological harms to them such as pollution, noise, and traffic jam. It gives people a feeling of both love and hatred. Thus, the artist accumulates numerous cars into a sensual car with perspective approach and abstract language, and car becomes a thing that is similar to human body organs or limbs. This involves full of flowing and abstract lines. He also likes to shape a struggling figure which has been squashed. Such a sense of squeezing may reflect the psychological and spiritual helplessness, anxiety and mania caused by traffic jam in today's city. As we know, congestion problem in city is becoming increasingly a serious social problem, not only hindering the social and economic development, but also causing different levels of psychological anxiety, depression and trauma. Thus, is this phenomenon a real soft violence?
In Discrepancy, Gao Xiaowu replaces his childhood with a sculpture of a screw which depicts full of movement. On top, a cuddly-looked Buddha crosses his leg, formed a contrast with the instability of screw. Obviously, he disposes the meaning of coming in and out the world into a visualized language which creates a confrontation between thinking space of Zen meditation and disturbing reality. The artist intends to borrow a way of comprehension, in order to reduce the intrusion of tempting soft violence. This work has a sense of calmness above the clouds, and that is a peace transcend over the temptations in reality.
In short, Gao Xiaowu considers the significance of art in society as ‘art should have a function of reminder, like a warning card.’ His current exhibition with the theme of soft violence depicts vividly the thinking on some problems but should not be overlooked. This would make people feel that violence could be a direct harm to them, but at the same time, they will also experience a softer violence affecting their lives silently. Gao Xiaowu adopts metaphor and abstract artistic language, to express his concerns and criticism of many problems in the real world which exerts with exaggerated and abstract sculptural language – all urban appearances composed of car, house, baby, consumption, information, belief, desire, are expressed and resolved vividly with a visual form of soft violence.
Gao Xiaowu’s solo exhibition, Soft Violence, presents new sculptures, demonstrates vividly of a unique and personal visual language, while audience could feel its witty and humor, but at the same time, derive inspiration and serious reflection.
Therefore, Soft Violence is an eternal theme related closely with human being.