Double Happiness is a Warm Gun is the name of a recently concluded exhibition by Guo Jian at Sydney's Tin Sheds Gallery.
Military hardware abounds with tanks, jetfighters and other weapons scattered throughout the images.
The more complex, intense and ultimately more disturbing images are the smaller paintings in the collection. These have a slightly more traditional feel about them with some of the characters performing circus acts. While everyone is laughing hysterically, or in a state of almost beatific bliss, an atmosphere of hypocrisy, lying and tackiness prevails. The overwhelming mood is dark and disturbing, the scenes dominated by an underlying sense that something terribly barbaric and violent is about to occur. Guo Jian spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the social and political conditions facing artists in China today and the evolution of his own artistic vision.