Guan Xiao

David

David is a five-minute pseudo music video that features an upbeat melodic soundtrack with a duet by the artist Guan Xiao and frequent collaborator (and KADIST collection) artist Yu Honglei. Three screens display a collection of home videos filmed and uploaded by tourists at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence capturing Michelangelo’s eponymous masterpiece. The mass popularity and commodification of this artwork is further exaggerated with the numerous forms that we encounter and consume the image or likeness of the sculpture in our daily lives. The artist and Yu cheekily sing about the empty obsession toward this work and how its ubiquitous presence has rendered its true value and significance meaningless and neutral.   

Guan’s satirical statement on this particular Renaissance icon is twofold. It is a testament to how the influence of the consumption of images has propagated a cycle of overproduced “useless” (poor quality) material and neutralized the spectator’s ability to marvel at the extraordinary. This indifference especially resonates in today’s social media culture where a “like” is but a fleeting and empty sentiment. In addition, Guan’s choice of subject intentionally references what is dominantly considered to be a work of art in its most perfected form. This speaks to the artist’s frustration towards classification—which circles back to her interest in altering perception—and being categorized according to a Western standard.