Youth fair's "Square Dance" fits in round hole of art

The 4th Shanghai Youth Art Fair is underway at ShanghaiMart through November 19.

Nearly 2,000 works of art, ranging from canvas, sculpture, ink-wash painting to installation created by young artists are exhibited. Imagination and creativity are undoubtedly the themes of the fair that attracts about 20,000 young artists.

The highlight of the exhibition goes to an installation titled “Square Dance — Let Me Control My Body” created by female artist Li Yirong.

The work features nearly 300 plastic-made personified dancers in different postures, resembling the unique yet prevailing after-dinner activity among the neighboring middle-aged and elderly Chinese women to maintain their fitness.

“Square dance perhaps is the most self-entertained group activity in China,” explains Li Yirong. “Today nobody knows when or where it started, yet it not only swept the whole China but also in Paris, New York and London, because there is not any requirement for the dancers, except for the music rhythm and movement.”

Li used the pedals and leaves to personify the bodies of the dancers in brilliant colors, which not only adds a strong visual impact, but a humorous tone to the work as well.

This year Shanghai Youth Art Fair also initiated a project — Art Mirror. Art Mirror, the first kind in the country, will become a platform that collaborates with Shanghai Ju Ying Tang Film and Television Company. The project aims to fuse more works created by these budding artists into movie scenes to level up the artistic taste of the film industry. “Pudong Families,” a 40-episode television series, will be a start-up.

“The new platform will expose more young artists’ artworks to the public, while at the same time, echo artistically with the scenario,” says Wang Fang, the director at the fair.

Info

Date: Through November 19, 10am-4pm

Tickets:40 yuan

Venue: ShanghaiMart

Address: 99 Xinyi Road