Who's this weird Mickey Mouse-looking character?

[vellocet]

Who's this character with the Mickey Mouse gloves and the Xs over his eyes?  He suddenly sprang up all over town about six months ago.  He seems to be most popular in statuary, but he also has glass etchings, shadow projections, and dolls.  Who is he and what's his deal?

 

   

[EricJMa]

This is a KAWS companion sculpture (a fake one). Brian Donnelly, known as KAWS, is an American street artist from NYC turned blue chip artist and designer.  This is most likely a knock off since his sculptures this size fetch a very heavy price.

 

[vellocet]

Oh.  Cultural contamination from an American. Of course...

[EricJMa]

no, it's contemporary art. you should read and learn about it. especially if it's difficult to understand.

[vellocet]

I doubt if an American has anything to teach us. Especially if he's deliberately obtuse and makes it difficult to understand. Art is all about the feeling you get, and the feeling I'm getting is "oh look, an artist despises Disney: how original."

[EricJMa]

I'm an American teacher that majored in fine art. I am also happy to teach and learn things that seems difficult to learn at face value. It's okay if you think he is difficult understand on purpose. American artist don't own the patent of making art like this. It's great that you can give a critique as well. I just ask please don't be close minded to whom you think you can or cannot be taught by.

[vellocet]

Sorry; I didn't say it was difficult to understand.  You said that.  I said it's not worth spending time on, as it comes from an American and such intrusive cultural imports are irrelevant to our lives in China.

[Jim]

On 11/19/2021 at 1:23 PM, vellocet said:

such intrusive cultural imports are irrelevant to our lives in China.

You could argue the exact opposite, that the current Chinese moment is impossible to understand without appreciating how it has engaged with cultural imports, and American ones the most significant single nation among those. Funnily enough one of the last things I translated was some art blurbs for an exhibition inspired by Mickey Mouse, and there were several young Chinese artists' works that were both homage to the icon and an attempt to address the role they felt Mickey as concept had played in shaping their cultural outlook: https://ucca.org.cn/lab/mickey-the-true-original-exhibition-world-tour-shanghai-stop/