Post Auratic Self Portrait of Yue MinJun
By Jim Supangkat

The paintings, sculptures and installations of Yue Minjun always feature uniform laughing faces. And if these laughing faces are observed carefully, it will be noticed that these faces are the face of Yue Minjun. With these formations of self portraits, Yue Minjun presents various realities that emerge as the background behind the laughing visages. These realities emerge through various easy to recognize symbols, metaphors and signs, or through depictions of daily life.

The laughing faces and the representations of reality in Yue Minjun's works are closely related. And this relationship shows Yue Minjun's fairly easy to read cynicism in confrontation with reality. Concerning this cynicism, Yue Minjun has commented that he has commented that he senses an unrecognized power whose center is unknown, but which can engineer/manipulate the behavior of human being through intimidation and terror. This power constitutes a kind of violence that can make human behavior change progressively.

Can the works of Yue Minjun be said to be self-portraits? Does his artwork present any insight into the conflict between individuality and collectivism? Does his work indicate self-identification that represents the pressing of the self-identity into a collective existence? Of the many questions that arise, this is the most basic: Can the meaning of Yue Minjun's self-portraits be categorized as auratic or post-auratic.

Within the development of modern art, the search for reality through representation has been fully determined by the relationship between the individual absolute and reality. The individual conceptualizes reality as being in a set position, central and autonomous. The formation of concepts within this definition is fully determined by the correspondence of the concept with the object, and is not influenced by any force outside of the correspondence.

The search for reality within contemporary art exhibits a contrary tendency. The individual no longer develops a concept of reality because the position of the individual is no longer set and central, but rather without a center (ex-centric) or without a fixed central point. At the same time, the field/plain of interpretation or definition within the search for the meaning of reality continuously experiences reconfiguration. Because of that, the individual becomes unimportant in contemporary art. The question, "Who are you?" within a contemporary work of art is a polyphonous enquiry, or a question that looks both inwardly and outwardly.

"I" within the question "Who am I?" exists at a shifting position that is sometimes on the inside looking out and sometimes on the outside looking in. This is a self-identification in which the self is temporary in nature. Varies forces outside and within the self continuously influence self-identification and cause its reconfiguration. This is true of the self-identification occurring in the works of Yue Minjun, which is reflected in the tendency toward producing self-portraits.

Yue Minjun's paintings express how the "I" within his representations experiences desubstantialization because the self can easily shift from one plain of meaning to another. The face of Yue Minjun is also the face and faces of others, and these faces are similar to one another and evoke a sense of uniformity. The definition of the self in Yue Minjun's artworks does not always take the position of looking inward, in which the self becomes the object. This defining of the self can be seen as a reflection in which the self that brings a collective identity is the self, which is a part of another person, or of a society, or of humankind.

Although these paintings have been born of an experience that is very personal, the position of the individual in Yue Minjun pieces is no longer a position opposite of that of the other person or society. Because of this, the self-portraits in Yue Minjun paintings are self-portraits that are shattered. Self-portraits that is post-auratic. The self in the self-portraits of Yue Minjun is no longer personal.

This shift in self-identification in the works of Yue Minjun is related to the shifts in reality which are depicted in the representations of Yue Minjun, a reality that is influenced by the developments in the techno-industrial system, the communications revolution, and the multinational system of economics. This reality can almost not be comprehended because it is circled/surrounded by signs and symbols that no longer seek out values but instead guard the continuity of production within an economic system. Images, signs and symbols that have a massive influence that can no longer be controlled. Michel Foucault sees this as philosophical hermeneutics (techno-industrial principles that can be justified by scientific knowledge, norms and philosophy), which operate as modern bio-politics.

Whatever reality Yue Minjun sets forth in his works is a reality surrounded by those images, signs and symbols. This reality is a far cry from the "reality of nature" within the understanding of philosophy. Because of that, the representation in Yue Minjun artworks no longer attempts to seek out meaning. Yue Minjun makes no effort to comprehend the reality he is facing.

This is reflected in the uniform laughing faces that emerge in his work. Yue Minjun creates representations of his relationship with reality, which is also linked to the relationships of other people with reality. It is in this relationship that Yue Minjun senses that the reality he is facing contains intimidating forces.

These intimidating forces are also what make Yue Minjun return to the issue of the personal. This problem of the personal is a "small window" that is left with which to observe the reality surrounded by the uncontrolled images, signs and symbols. This problem of the personal that constitutes this "small window" is the basis for Yue Minjun repeated return to his own face, which, in his works, appears as more than just a self-portrait.

Within that personal dilemma explored there is a spiritual space that that cannot be pierced, let alone be dominated by the techno-industrial signs that carry the characteristics of materialism (the basis for exploration of the material world that exists within the entire development of production in this modern world). This spiritual space functions as an "emergency door" that makes sublimation possible.

Within the existentialist aesthetic, sublimation marks the effort of "the self" to eliminate the tracks of destruction resulting from the terror of reality. The laughing faces in the works of Yue Minjun indicate that the sublimation of his representations does not change pain into something humorous and pleasant, but, rather, changes the feeling of pain into an ache that no longer contains any trace of terror.

In facing the siege of signs of the techno-industrial regime, Yue Minjun does not take an oppositional stance, nor does he avoid or acknowledge these techno-industrial signs. In fact, he even makes use of these dominant signs. However, this is done through the deconstruction of those images and structures.

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