“How do we gain the healing power through art?”
Although art may be seen as difficult and highbrow by many people, it provides a remedy to the pressures of the high intensity of work and the never-ending development of the economy have left urbanites in a state of permanent energy depletion, as illustrator Jun Guan says “appearing calm on the surface, but in fact, already full of holes on the inside”.
For Guan the human being has a direct link with art, stemming from the ‘primitive art’ first created on the walls of ancient caves. Yet the modern relationship with art is defined by art education and the market economy. Professional art criticism has cut off direct contact with art through the five senses. Guan longs to “go back to the mindless scribbling on the walls when I was a child, and I want to have a moment to unlock the shackles of the adult world.”