Vanguard Gallery is pleased to present Is it Beauty, Loyalty, or Love? by Jiū Society at NAFI 2024 NanJing Art Fair International from 21st to 24th November at booth A-12.

Jiū Society’s work Is it Beauty, Loyalty, or Love? is based on narrative collages drawn from the Chinese classics Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. It incorporates elements of Cantonese opera performance and adapts two famous Cantonese opera segments, ‘The Peach Garden Oath’ and ‘Wu Song Fights the Tiger’, to create a trilogy that blends modern urban emotions. These three parts are titled The Three Brothers of the Peach Garden, Wu Song Teases the Tiger, and Black in Black.

Through their exploration in Guangzhou, which they called their ‘Journey of Harmonious Sounds’, Jiū Society gained a deeper understanding of Cantonese opera’s aesthetic system, folk elements, and the artisanal spirit that underpins the art form. Their work continues the artists’ exploration of stage performance art while delving into the native Cantonese opera of Lingnan and examining ancient wisdom and aesthetics.

This creative process explores the fusion of mythology and natural science, cultural values like loyalty, emotion, heroism, and righteousness, as well as the laws of historical development and strategic thinking. Jiū Society, with its unique and humorous art language, integrates Cantonese opera performance art, unfolding dreamlike reversals and delving into the subtle relationships and emotions of characters, dramatically narrating a contemporary fable about beauty, loyalty, and love.