As far as Xu Mo's concerned, bigfoot epitomizes the primeval state of human being and is capable of independent thinking and acting on the levels of cognition, emotion, intention and action. As someone who is not insensitive and refuses to conform to the mainstream society, Xu has always remained vigilant and suspicious of the reality world around him and held fast to the naturalness and wildness once rooted in bigfoot.
The image of tiaotiao, the urban bigfoot featured in Xu Mo's works, derives from the unidentified subject Patterson and Gimlin shot in California in 1967. Taking that as a point of departure, the artist has transformed and developed it into a somehow cartoonized figure – a fluffy "bigfoot hanging out in urban space" in whom the blending of genes from both the bigfoot and modern man can be perceived.
Resorting to the appropriation of art history, Xu replaces the male figure in The Absinthe Drinker, a portrait by Picasso completed during his blue period, with the image of tiaotiao in A Corner of the Pub. The melancholy expression on the face of the man in Picasso's work is substituted by a thoughtful smile. Be Happy also features a scene in a pub. Here tiaotiao with his mouth wide open is about to devour the book in his hands. The cubist painting on the upper left corner is a homage paid to Picasso. Other cartoon characters, like the wooden Popeye and the bunny in front of a brick wall, while wearing smiles on their face, provocatively challenge the mass production of so-called "urban art" which often leads to a visual emphasis on shallow cuteness. The same provocativeness could also be seen in Alive in which an octopus covers its body with its arms while giving an intriguing smile.
Ever since he was a little kid, with the help of dictionary Xu Mo began to "probe into" boxes of magazines such as Probe stacked at home and was deeply intrigued by the dark matters, monsters, lizardman, aliens and the various ghosts and spirits depicted in these magazines. In Xu's works, outlandish collages are often scattered across the images. The somewhat mysterious messiness therefore created fosters senses of uneasiness and restlessness. With tiaotiao merging seamlessly into a variety of characters – i.e. the seven sagas of bamboo grove in modern context, Chinese uncles engaging in square dancing, shopaholic girl, fat nerds who base their life on the screen and youngsters who choose to lie flat – it seems he is virtually everywhere and can be virtually everyone, imbuing an extraordinary sense of reality into the artist's works. In the meantime, the artist chooses to delineate lies and deceits in real life in a subjective manner through body movements and games; as a result, with the white backdrop enhancing visual contrast, the paintings radiate a metaphorical sense of profoundness and self-mockery.
The exhibition will also feature two groups of sculptures. In the Self-Fashioning series, with his arms stretching around his knees, tiaotiao's body is presented in a somehow twisted state. The big grin on his face gives out a sense of living the "moment". The two sculptures from this series are installed on each side of the exhibition entrance, reminding people of the stone guardians erected at tomb passages in ancient time. The clown featured in Cash-Spiting-Out Clown is based on a performance work by the owner of Art Ganster Club who previously gave a performance at an art fair: giving out cash on site. The three sculptures in three different positions - standing upright, kneeling pronely and sitting crookedly – all spit out dollar bills with tiaotiao's portrait on. Together with the banknotes scattered on the floor, a cynical sense of irony towards the industry could be perceived.
To Xu Mo, the "urban bigfoot" personifies a confrontationist with idealism. In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau raised the question that if a comparison was to be made between modern and natural man, who was happier? According to Rousseau, the answer was out of question – the natural man. Natural man might own nothing materially speaking; but compared with modern man, they were more abundant spiritually and enjoyed a life with low desires and hence lower cost of time and energy. As a "urban bigfoot", tiaotiao demonstrates both Xu Mo's vision to confront the reality world and a path of quantifiable self-attitudes. Under its various forms and images, the "urban bigfoot" contains the possibilities for diverse thinking and expression.
