Luxury House Glitters in Gold

The glare of gold is so captivating, mystic and luxurious that, over time, people have hailed this precious metal and its iridescent hue as a symbol of wealth with broad social and cultural indications.

It is considered as a synonym of majesty, privilege and glory. It can also be used sarcastically to criticize others as extravagant, ostentatious and pretentious.

The power of gold, as well as the complicated meanings associated with it in different contexts of time and space, will be unveiled to dazzle at L'Or de Dior, an exhibition presented by Dior in Beijing.

The show will be open to the public on Monday, running until Sept 29 at the Guardian Art Center.

A dialogue to engage with the audience through history, fashion, perfume, art and culture will open through a juxtaposition of Dior's iconic designs of more than 70 years and creations of artists from around the world, including several homegrown figures who have been at the forefront of Chinese contemporary art to show their commissioned works for Dior.

Continuing the enduring bonds established with China since its inception, Dior has engaged in a multitude of creative exchanges with Chinese artists since 2008. To date, Dior has collaborated with more than 50 prominent figures within the Chinese contemporary art scene.

The exhibition is held amid celebrations for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China. It is part of this year's Festival Croisements, launched annually in 2006 to strengthen cultural exchanges and dialogue between China and France via various exhibitions, performances and events in China.

The exhibition also intends to reinforce the multiple links that unite the brand and China.

Reflecting such deep connections, 14 Chinese artists have taken part in the L'Or de Dior exhibition.

For Chen Ke, her link to Dior traces back to her youth.

"I have liked fashion design since my youth. One of the first foreign designers I read about in a fashion magazine was Christian Dior," the painter says.

The many portraits she creates reflect the social situations of people, particularly women, and their mentalities. Her piece in the exhibition, Mr. Dior and Model, was inspired by old photos and videos of Christian Dior that she was given.

"He had the charisma of an artist. He treated fashion and design as works of art. Meanwhile, he was a successful entrepreneur who was decisive and knew how to manage a company," she says.

"What captivated me most was his status when working with models — how he measured them and adjusted the textiles and designs on their bodies. He was gentle, delicate and not overbearing."

That side of his character is visible in the portrait — the model is higher than the designer, with her hair, makeup and clothes in gold to remind one of the sun's radiance, while Dior is in a gray suit.

Fascination and obsession

The working process of those in the fashion trade also fascinates Lin Tianmiao, whose installation work Procedure is also featured at L'Or de Dior.

Lin says that since childhood, she has enjoyed watching artists and craftsmen work.

"These unique tools they work with, the ways they use the apparatuses with dexterity and their status — forgetting about the whole world but investing so much into what they are doing — have become an obsession for me."

Her works show golden tools and models of skeletal pieces grafted together, by which she initiates discussions about new values.

"I'm interested in people of different walks of life engaging in their trades. I loved helping and watching my artist father when he painted and practiced calligraphy," she says.

"It is the process of those artisans in Dior's studios where observing them inspired me to think about the invisible values of the steps in their work to produce items of high value."

Using gold to relate to the production and value of goods is also a clue to Zheng Guogu's creation, To Oxydize 2,000 Years, Dior, but of different connotations.

He reproduced an installation of 28 bronze perfume bottles in 2008. "They look quite like dumbbells."

"At that time I was interested in the diversity of goods. I would pay a lot of attention to new products in supermarkets," Zheng says, adding that the bottles show the coexistence of the fragility and solidity of a material.

This contrast between a hardened surface and a fragile quality is also a perspective of the piece by Liu Jianhua, who has been working primarily with ceramics, bringing to the exhibition two golden porcelain works — The Illuminated Object and Lady Dior Handbag.

The former piece provides an immersive experience made possible by hundreds of ceramic bottles shaped after the J'adore perfume hung in midair to look like raindrops.

"My piece is made to doubt the material and value and how they are associated with people's satisfaction and self-esteem," Liu says.

"It is natural for people to anticipate a better future — the more affluent, material life they lead, the happier they may look. But we should not overlook the building and accumulation of a spiritual life."

Wang Yuyang, however, uses gold to accentuate his mixed feelings about the moon and reflections on what is real or not in Lady Dior Bag, a commissioned Lady Dior bag on show featuring the moon, a recurring motif that Wang has been exploring.

"My longtime interest in the moon dwells on its various imageries in the past and present, East and West — the moon in Chinese mythology and folklore I heard in childhood, with rich cultural connotations delivering a mystic, romantic and poetic feeling, and the scientific revelations of the moon in lunar probe and research, in which I have gained new knowledge after attending school."

He says that contrast — the perceptions of the moon in objective and subject worlds — has led him to question reality.

"In the dark of night, what people know best is the moon that guides them. I gave this moon a new dimension, and it brought out colors of unexpected beauty.

"The Lady Dior may offer you new possibilities but it (the moon) remains the same."

Shining sounds

In their work Handle Me, artist duo Bao Yang and Liu Wa also try to add more dimension to the show with music and sound.

The 24-karat gold-plated sound installation will be placed in a soundproof glass chamber while sound waves drive the subwoofer to pulse like a beating heart. It will play two songs written by Bao and sung by Liu Wa.

Bao says the vibrations created by sound waves are to remind people of the sound of nature, which is generated by chance and beyond the expectations of people.

"It is exuberant with solemnity and timeless charm," he says.

Inspired by the booming street culture and hip-hop music of New York City, the duo hopes to add another dimension to the audience's experience at the exhibition with the introduction of sound to express a sense of futurism, the comfort of metropolitan life and the power of youth culture while retaining the grace and beauty of Dior.

Collaborating with a luxury brand on an art project is not unfamiliar to some in the show, including Liu Jianhua who began working with Dior in 2008. Still, such experiences have kept generating new impulses and ideas.

Zhang Ding says the collaboration is a challenge for him, like an architect renovating a portable space. He mentions it in his work Untitled, the idea of which was derived from the iconic Lady Dior handbag.

"After analyzing the bag, I divided its structure into 846 parts and re-created the bag, … to become a miniature piece of architecture, a space that can be reconstructed and renovated."

For Liu Fujie, whose piece Hybrid is on display, the project allowed her to work with gold, a color she rarely uses.

Her sculpture shows a strange form made up of aquatic creatures, plants and cells that are ever-growing.

"It is to deliver a feeling of the uncertainty of the things, time and space, and our experiences of instability," she says.

"I turned to the gilding technique. The gold leaves are light, fragile and not easy to work with, but when applied to a surface, it presents a certain extent of weight and a hard, solid texture."

She says gold reminds her of the light penetrating mist and clouds or the fading memories from the past, and it feels like something sharp that disappears in an instant.

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

Guardian Art Center

10 am-6 pm, Tuesday-Sunday; noon to 6 pm, Monday; last entry at 5:30 pm. 1 Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8592-8266.