A tulip is an unusual visual metaphor for economic corruption, and the business pages of a newspaper are unlikely canvases for art. In London-based artist Gordon Cheung’s new works, both are employed to raucous effect. Cheung’s new bodies of work, titled “Tulipmania,” is now on view in “Breaking Tulips” at London’s Alan Cristea Gallery. The pieces employ decoupaged newspaper scraps and a dominant, painted floral motif and could be misunderstood, if analyzed in fragments and devoid of context.
“To me, it is a surreal metaphor of the madness of crowds, to spend the price of a house on a tulip bulb. Despite believing ourselves to be rational and part of what we call an advanced civilisation, the same human feral impulses of greed that take hold of the minds of many are lessons we have yet to learn despite all the bubbles that have come and gone since almost 400 years ago.”
Read the full interview here: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-gordon-cheung-on-using-tulips-to-critique-capitalism
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