Every Year Ends 2009

Curator: This painting, rendered in acrylic-paint and entitled "Every Year Ends," was completed by Lu Cong in 2009. The work captures a posed model set against an urban backdrop. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Starkly elegant, I’d say. The monochromatic palette and her slightly aloof expression create an atmosphere of poised melancholy. The hand placement – one almost nonchalantly on her hip, is confident yet feels slightly unnatural. It's reminiscent of classical portraiture, yet strangely modern. Curator: Absolutely. The cityscape in the background is important, I think. It serves not merely as decoration but perhaps as a symbolic indicator of urban alienation and the constraints placed upon women, reflecting issues of identity and social expectation within contemporary Chinese society. Editor: You see the cityscape as alienating. I see those rooftops as romantic, even dreamlike. I’m drawn to the image of water towers looming in the near distance: they remind me of similar symbols of resourcefulness and hidden oases in art and literature. It speaks to resilience and maybe even reinvention in an austere world. Curator: And reinvention ties into Cong’s use of figuration, moving between a very accessible Realism and, perhaps, more nuanced messaging related to historical fashion and self-representation. The black dress seems less about clothing design and more about a coded way of performing femininity. Editor: Indeed. That black dress, almost severe, contrasts so sharply with her face. The face carries this sort of fragile expression that’s hard to shake – she seems so exposed despite being dressed in this sophisticated garment. It also echoes the use of portraiture in cultural memory. What does it tell us? Curator: Maybe that "Every Year Ends" not just with closure but with a complicated, mediated look back – even critique – on identity within broader power structures. Editor: Or maybe it asks us, how can symbols – the dress, the setting – ever truly convey what we intend? All things considered, it's a quiet, thoughtful piece that I suspect keeps revealing itself. Curator: Yes, I agree. A work with a lasting echo.