Happy Life #8
Chen Wenling
Fiberglass and automotive paint, 2005
Lent through the courtesy of Michael Micketti, Tom Whitten and Robischon Gallery
While in European folklore pigs are generally seen as gluttonous or devious, the Chinese pig commonly represents wealth and good fortune. Chen habitually mixes both Chinese and Western elements. Happy Life #8 can be read as a celebration of wealth, but the figures of the gleeful pot-bellied farmer and his enormous sow may also suggest the irony of the saying, “Ignorance is Bliss.”
One of six examples at this scale, Happy Life #8 was also executed in two smaller sizes. Chen often presents large groupings of identical works, reflecting ancient Chinese models of sculptural profusion, much as the famous Terra Cotta Warriors of the late 3rd century BCE. Happy Life #8 also recalls the ancient Greek Calf-Bearer illustrated here. Like the ancient Greek sculptors, who themselves blended Egyptian and Mesopotamian traditions, Chen merges eastern and western style and content.
University of Denver Art Collection, L2009.041