Bosses and Prostitutes by Li Zhanyang Photo: Xu Ming/GT

Considering most art exhibitions are open to the public, it's rare for an event to make people feel embarrassed or even ashamed. However, you should probably watch out if you decided to go to sculptor Li Zhanyang's latest exhibition Street • Garden, it's not something you'll probably want to take your kids to.

A glance of the exhibit will tell you why. Naked or half naked bodies of women, obscene scenes of sex between men and women, and even a woman and a horse. Many of his sculptures look like something that you would find on the dark recesses of the Internet after searching for "sex" and "OMG."  

"The most important thing about this exhibition is that it is being held at all," noted Li about the exhibit which opened on Saturday. He explained that he is very clear about the gap that exists between the visual impact his works have and the sensibilities of Chinese audiences.   

Removing the veil

Divided into two sections, "Street" and "Garden," the exhibition at the Being 3 Gallery boasts 76 of Li's sculptures, many displayed for the first time in public.

As we talked Li pointed to a sculpture in the Garden section titled The Clouds, which depicts a brown horse sliding its penis between a naked woman's legs from behind while both stand on a cloud.

"I started to work on this 10 years ago, but this is its debut showing," Li said. "At present, the pubic will have a problem seeing something like this."

 Another piece of work, named after the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel The Golden Lotus, has also been sitting in his studio for the past 10 years. In the sculpture, the novel's two characters Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian are having sex on an antique-styled bed. 

Given the heavy amount of sex, Li admitted that many of his works have only been circulated online in the past, which is one of the reasons this current exhibition means so much to him.

"The significance of the exhibition lies in that all my previous works are on exhibition, including those that I was not allowed to exhibit before and those that have never been made public," said Li, adding that he will walk away satisfied so long as the exhibition is not canceled over the next month.

Fortunately for more conservative viewers, not all the sculptures on display are that "offensive." The sights over in the "Street" section of the exhibit are more acceptable.

In this section, Li depicts life on the streets and the goings-on at public entertainment venues. Here you can see people playing cards, migrant workers flirting with prostitutes, migrant workers listening to the radio, bosses and prostitutes cuddling in Karaoke Bars.

In Night Scene of Chongqing, Li creates a wanton scene where a crowd ogles a naked stripper, while men and women indulge in some of life more base pleasures in different rooms and prostitutes wait on street corners for customers. At the same time other various aspects of life can be seen such as a little girl selling flowers and an old beggar squatting in a corner.

Gao Minglu, curator of the exhibition, regards Li's sculptures as "grass-roots realism," which is demonstrated not only in the subjects (ordinary people's life) he chooses, but also his integration of traditional folk art (clay figurines) in his work. 

A realist storyteller

Looking at Li's exhibition I found it difficult to use abstract art terminology to generalize his work. No matter if it was his street scenes or his bold images about the sexual nature of human beings, everything was a blunt and literal reflection of reality.

Li admitted the realism in his works. He explained that his creations were based on his experiences and observations rather than his imagination.

In his series of works such as Li Du and Night Scene of Chongqing, Li illustrates all types of entertainment scenes found in cities. They are based on Li's personal experiences in 1997 when he went to study at China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and had a chance to see the prosperity of a big city in full swing at a night club.

"For me, someone from a small town in Northeast China, the wild, exciting and wanton scene at the club was shocking yet also intriguing," Li said. Curious and intrigued, he visited the bar frequently at night and observed everything from a corner. Once he even stalked a group of prostitutes back to their home.

One scene after another, over the years Li has recreated what he saw in his sculptures, showing a materialistic society and an era of consumption, while also indicating the excessive sexual venting that followed after a time of sexual repression in China.

His works about sex also represent his personal experiences. Li was once a tutor for a well-to-do family. One rainy evening while the man of the house was on a trip, his attractive wife asked Li to stay after he finished teaching.

"With her attitude towards me in the past, I could feel her intentions. I rejected her, but with a contradicted heart," Li said.

Contradicted feelings about sexual impulses can be seen reflected in his work Wu Song Kills His Sister-in-law, in which famed hero Wu Song licks the bosom of the half naked adulteress Pan Jinlian right before he kills her. "It is unbelievable that he wouldn't have indecent feeling towards such a beauty."

A sculptor who has held many exhibitions both at home and abroad, the 45-year-old has created over 100 sculpture works to date. He has also aroused much controversy for the blunt representation of sex and violence in many of his works.

Li explained that he is not trying to shock or offend, "I just want to accurately capture what's in my heart during a flash of inspiration. The more you think about other people's reactions, the more commonplace your work becomes."

His next work, also based on his own experiences, will be about his mother who died in 2009.

"I want to depict how she struggled with disease until the last moment of her life. You see, this has nothing to do with sex at all," Li said, smiling.