Lefan Feng and Kai-Chaun Shih:  Pacifier

The Barbican’s 2018/19 exhibition ‘Modern Couples:  Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde’ revealed the ways in which romantic relationships between artists can become platforms from which challenging new work might emerge.  On first viewing Lefan Feng and Kai-Chaun Shih’s visionary digital painting, Pacifier, it is difficult not to conclude that their combined exploration of marginalised individuals and communities, exploited by uncaring and indifferent societies, would have been deserving of placement alongside Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst.

Coming together two years ago, the London based Chinese artists have forged an uncompromising practice,  unifying their distinct skills; Feng a digital illustrator with a growing reputation in the field of character design and storytelling, Shih a master of traditional techniques borne out of the academic orthodoxy of drawing and painting.  For both artists, while art might function to entertain, it’s real power lies in its ability to transform lives, combating injustice and affecting positive societal change.  There is an urgency about their work, an earnest appeal to a timeless sense of morality that pervades the borders between us.  Without being overtly political, they raise questions about what it means to be human, to feel, to be loved.  Pacifier serves as a perfect exemplar of this.

The digital artwork at once recalls the black ink drawings of Aubrey Beardsley (while eschewing Beardsley’s tendency to dwell on the grotesque, decadent and erotic) and the earlier portraits of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  Two ethereal, sprite-like figures melt into eternal melancholia connected by a sword which, rather than appearing to be solid, passes through one of them as if it were sand dissolving into the mists of time.  Framed by the swirling, dendritic patterns of roots and branches, the image possesses an organic quality speaking to the primacy of nature, and of our place within it.

Pacifier forms part of a larger, progressive body of work; 20 two- and three-dimensional reflections on critical issues rendered on a macro-scale.  The couple do not shy away from confronting the frailties of the human condition, shining a light with honesty and integrity on our worst impulses to harm ourselves and the world in which we live.  They provoke important conversations about gender inequality, post-feminism and climate change.  If  for Feng the collaborative project functions to: ‘provoke thought and inspire change … (to be a) catalyst for connection, empathy, and understanding in a world that often feels divided’, Shih’s purpose is more esoteric, to: ‘transcend … pleasure (and) ignite curiosity, spark imagination and inspire introspection … (to) aspire to bridge the gap between reality and imagination, offering glimpses into realms where dreams and reality converge.’
It seems certain that in the coming months and years, the collaborators will take the London art scene by storm, embraced by the Tate Modern, Serpentine Galleries and, of course, the Barbican, and take their place within the pantheon of couples creating significant work together.