Bag No.4

Bag No. 4 (2018) by Li Jinguo

Crystal resin, 37cm x 33cm x 15cm

Collector: Brian Wallace

My first acquisition of Li Jinguo’s resin sculpture was called Red (2011) which was a replica of an old man’s leather briefcase. The flow of the red ink in the crystal resin captured the age of the once ubiquitous and functional bag carried around by Beijing’s nascent entrepreneurs in the late 80s and early 90s – modest signs of success, and perhaps hidden wads of renminbi – as the country embarked on its ‘to get rich is glorious’ economic reform. The sculpture captured the times, registering a tangent into an unknown future.

Bag No. 4 (2018) marks another time in China’s march towards ‘riches for all’. The blatant materialism and excess of a society induced to consume as much as possible for the future of the Motherland foresaw no bounds. The international symbol of success – the iconic handbag of fashion – has also been set in resin. Transparent and fixed, Li’s comment on the material world portends a not-too-distant future where restraint and caution are now the code words of the new era of ‘common prosperity'.

Brian Wallace

(Brian Wallace founded Red Gate Gallery in 1991 in Beijing’s iconic 600-year-old Ming Dynasty east corner (Dongbianmen) Watch Tower and for the past 33 years has been the director of this trailblazing gallery, now located in 798 Art Zone, that continues to showcase the best of contemporary Chinese art.)