Art Journal #31: Gu Dexin @ Continua

I honestly dont know his body of work very well. Just know he's among the pioneers from the avant garde period that got the whole movement started - but I havent seen a lot of his work. Got to see this at Gallery Continua in 798. Strong work. Large site-specific installation, with words saying "I have killed people...have eaten people"...running all across the 4 walls - which is a bit scary. Then in the middle of room, when you approach it, you get to see "we will all go to heaven". You get a burning feeling in your stomach seeing the work. It's about guilt, the invarible "crime/bad things" we do in life, and despite that, our "unrepenting" desire of how our after-life should be. The windows in the gallery were all covered up with TV monitors showing floating clouds - Gu's representation of heaven. In the description of the work, the curator said Gu doesnt give any literal description, and titled his work just by the date, to leave the viewers to more openly interpret his work. Interesting - finally I understand why artists called their work "untitled". Previously, I always thought, cant they even think of a name, any name?! It's just confusing to call things "untitled"...esp when it's not one, but a whole series (like Zeng Fanzhi's scribbly landscape-ish work). Now I get it, I guess....