Most of you probably don’t know Peng Lei, but he’s a Chinese pop icon, artist, director and front man of one of the biggest pop-rock bands from that contradictory republic: “New Pants”… Playing at being a musician, artist, filmmaker & toyshop owner is not easy. He’s been painting & studying for doing so since he was a child, then when moving to college he decided he wanted to be come a film director, he quickly changes his opinion and projects because as he says “My working principle is that if one project that I’m working on shows no sign of progressing smoothly, then I immediately move onto other projects.”
He’s art has been influenced for many years by the European and American 1970s and 1980s pop culture, such as New Wave and Disco. As a result, his present works resemble and reflect this kind of culture with only slight differences in format. Which adjectives he uses for his works? “Absolute realism, duplicity and Chinese post-wave.” Despite being extremely occidental in manners & messages his Chinese cultural heritage is also very present. Peng is very interested in China’s feudal superstition which he constantly uses in his works. For instance, his first movie ‘Peking Monster’ referenced Cixi from the Qing Dynasty with some modern and funny techniques.
Xianren from the creator’s project has had a quick chat & has reviewed the works, methods & results of this eclectic “Millionaire Peng Lei”. We highly encourage you to have a go.
