Games and Anxiety

by Suwano Wisetrotomo
May 2004

Zhong Shan – like other young people anywhere – is surrounded by technological gadgets and access to information. Computer becomes an indispensible part of life. With a computer, an individual could get uprooted from his society. He could become a virtual explorer, visiting every corner of the (virtual) world without having to leave his place. Computers give us what we want, from information to games. "(Computer) games are parallel with reality; a game proceeds alongside life, they become a common knowledge within society", said Zhong Shan.

He also observes the social situation that tends to get abnormal, similar with cases where computer viruses become a menace to the existence of files in databases, disks or drum storage. The viruses in a society's life could exist in the forms of pollution of the natural environment noise or electromagnetic field. Zhong Shan's creative process is based on such reality.

He decides to take an issue of the reality and subject it to critical perusal. Bluntly he said, "Facing all that, my attitude is more of anxiety rather than mere pessimism." The statement is news, for it shows the artist's clear and unmistakable standpoint. Moreover if we compare it to the fact that the majority of artists tend to get 'drowned' in uncertain attitudes and 'mere romanticism', such as declaring oneself as optimistic or pessimistic, happy or sad. Art works of such artists are usually nothing more than a statement, a jargon, about their sympathies and what they feel, and as such those works are poor and lacking spirit, with little or no ability to affect anyone else. On the contrary, Zhong Shan tries hard to provoke a 'contagion' of spirit, by infusing his paintings with personal emphaty about human problems and humanity in a way that they would be able to 'disturb' other people's consciousness. Zhong Shan sees the era of "open and reformed China" (after 1980's) as similar with someone walking from utter darkness into an immense light. The person must stumble around and get blinded by the light. Zhong Shan asserts that such a situation is full of risks and possibilities. It becomes noisier. Generally, society, especially the young, seems to lose orientation since often they cannot find a room to undergo transition (slowly), to adjust themselves to the new situation ((culture). The surrounding environment that often blind and confuse them – say, new tradition, style, behavior, technology for communication and information – looks like a mighty wave that could sweep away everything and everyone within its reach. Zhong Shan calls it "the disorganization of the Chinese society in living orderly under some rules."

Against such a social background, Zhong Shan might have been growing up as a member of the new (Chinese) generation characterized by changes. Changes are surely full of uncertainties as well as surprises. The people Zhong Shan knows is a prototype of fragile transitional society. The tendency to become cosmopolitan, individualist, forces everybody to become solitary and alienated. Zhong Shan notes that "friendship becomes rare, more people resort to keeping pets, money becomes the main issue and a thte same time the natural environment is being damages." To him, all those are traumatic experiences.

Zhong Shan's attempt to show loneliness, solitaire, and alienation in his works could be seen in, for instance, "Pretty Woman", which gives us an intriguing narration; humans, alone, or in company of others around a table, within a game space (chess; implying intricacies, tactics, and the spirit to 'fight'), while there is no communication between the humans, it isn't any different from being alone. Those works seems to depict the interior (psyche) of woman in anxiety over their existence. The chessboard provides a strong contrast against the facial expression of confusion and worry, it is like a stage of a theater; full of enigmas, also about a lost identity, is this the result of solitaire, or what becomes of being forces to live in a big city's labyrinth?

Another work, "Kong Fu", seems to be a gesture about generational sustainability, perhaps something like a genetic mutation, which could succeed but also could fail. Gene (gender, ideologies, beliefs, etc.), transformed in the next generation, could multiply in some unforeseen development, and this could haunt every generation.

Then there is "Wind" (series 1-4), which seems to tell of values that keep on circling, breaking loose, and then being swept away by the waves of change. All those are unplanned; there is no time for preparation. Like a bomb that suddenly explodes, burns and destroys everything around it, and then, consciously or not, it would change our entire perception of life and living (of our plans, sense of security, economy, politics, prejudice, etc.). We lament it, yet all the changes and their risks keep on rolling.