YUE MINJUN

Yue Minjun's life-sized Contemporary Terracotta Warriors sculptures (Lot 1261) reference to China's first emperor Qin Shih-huang, and his famous tomb of seven thousand terracotta warriors. The stance of his modern everyday man then becomes a pose of supplication, implying heedless embrace of the indoctrination laid before their paths and leads us to ponder on existing social structure and equilibrium between the individual and the masses. Conceived as formations of 25 figures posed in 10 different gestures, each with variations largely in the arms, the work serves to complement as well as to satirize history through dynamic visual impact. At the same time, Yue has created a riddle in such formations for it implies the slightest move would set off a chain reaction that may cause it to tip off its equilibrium.