Sun Yuan and Peng Yu Old Persons Home 2007. Courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London © Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, 2007
Exhibit: Old Persons Home 2007 by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, Saatchi Gallery. Until January 18th 2010 as part of CHINESE ART: THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES
In a sparse white room devoid of any comfort are 13 decrepit OAPs. The eerie creak of their wheelchairs can be heard echoing down the corridors before you even see them. It’s only when I walk down from the viewing platform and onto the floor itself that I am sure the people aren’t actually real but life sized dummies made from silica gel.
Created by two controversial but celebrated Chinese artists, the sculptures form an art exhibit called Old Person’s Home 2007. And these are no ordinary old men on show. On closer inspection, they look suspiciously like elderly versions of our world leaders, long crippled and impotent.
They are pitiful shadows of their former selves, clad in faded military regalia, suits and religious robes. Some clutch relics of their former glory days when they ruled the world.
And even now that they are withered and senile, the geriatrics continue to battle it out. They move at a snail’s pace on their electric wheelchairs, rolling about the gallery and crashing into each other at random. These retired politicians are on a relentless and illogical collision course for international conflict.
My initial reaction is that this is all wickedly funny, it’s a parody of the U.N. and some of its most controversial members. The resemblance to bumper cars at a funfair adds to the ridicule – it’s like some sort of grotesque circus.
With the Iraq War Inquiry underway at the moment, the exhibit has a fresh political pertinence. It raises questions about those in power being held accountable for their actions. The men on display seem to have varying degrees of consciousness but all of them are on an aimless journey.
Some are slumped right over, drooling with their mouths open and appear to be asleep or maybe even dead. Either way, the distinction seems irrelevant. Others look like they are deep in thought or perhaps just completely senile.
Left with nothing but time, what do they spend their numbered days thinking about? Do they have bitter regrets? In hindsight would they have done anything differently?
The creators of the exhibit, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, say their work is characteristically concerned with issues of perception, death, and the human condition.
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu Old Persons Home 2007. Courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London © Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, 2007
They have been criticised for using gratuitous gore to shock audiences in the past and are infamous for their use of extreme materials like human fat tissue, live animals and dead foetuses. But to their credit, Old Person’s Home not only showcases their artistic talent, but stuns the audience without the need of horrific props and materials.
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