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From: Sexia
Category: Books
Date: 12 January 2006
This monograph outlines a body of work by the enigmatic artists JJ Xi and Yuan Cai who have made a polemic contribution to British art since their first highly publicised performance "Jumping on Tracey Enim's bed" in 1999. The question on any readers lips is are the artists JJ Xi and Yuan Cai mad for real as the book title suggests or just really mad?? It is important to distinguish between the nuances of these two phrases as performance, or live art as it has now been renamed, has been historically used by artists to provoke extreme reactions often at times of political or social upheaval. Much of this reactionary energy was present in the art produced in Beijing in the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre and this energy has flowed in the multi-disciplinary work of Cai and Xi. Oh yes these artists are really mad at social injustice whether present in the nepotistic British art world or in British and US foreign policy. Really mad, bad and dangerous to know though? Judge for yourself…
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