{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1865,"auction_id":4,"set_id":5,"lot_number":"136","artist":"Charlie Co (b. 1960)","title":"The War God and the Grave Diggers (Diptych)","starting_price":600000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2007 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"84 1/2\" x 84 1/2\" (215 cm x 215 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Osage Gallery and signed by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":"Osage Gallery, Possession, Hong Kong, June 1 - July 15, 2007","literature":null,"write_up":"The diptych The War God and the Grave Diggers\nis the largest work by Charlie Co to enter the \nPhilippine art market. When Co created the piece \nduring his artist's residency in Beijing in 2007, China \nhad become one of the world's largest economies and \nwould eventually overtake Japan in 2010 to become the \nsecond largest economy.
\nBut this supposed advancement was borne from China's \nregress from its socialist victories and reforms under \nthe leadership of Mao Zedong into that of capitalist \norientation and eventual imperialist attitude starting \nwith Deng Xiaoping's regime in the late 1970s that \neventually posed a great deal of political and economic \ninstability within the countries under its sphere of \ninfluence.
\nCo depicts China's imperialist stance in this intriguing \nwork. \"Four gods with Chinese features are dominantly \nwatching from above. Each one of them is holding their \nown special weapon,\" Co shares with León Gallery. \"The \none on the left has one hand clenched and the other \nhas his finger pointed upwards as if saying, \"Just you \nwait, Armageddon will come in its own time,\" as his \neyes look up even if his head faces downward. Another \ngod on the right has a black hood on his head. He is an \nexecutioner waiting for the command and unleashing \nthe war dogs. The god behind him has a sword, waiting \nto strike anytime.
\n\"The most powerful of them all is holding a globe, not \nthe normal globe; it is blackened and divided by lines. \nHe is waiting for the perfect time to start the war. The \nmen in the foreground are the gravediggers, holding \ntheir shovels, spades, and forks. They are waiting for \nthe command of their leader, the only person among \nthem who is facing the viewer, his eyes closed intently, \nwaiting for the command from above to give them the \nsignal to start digging graves of those who will perish \nin the war. In the background are smokestacks with \nhuman figures coming out of nuclear power plants, the \nvery reason for this conflict.
\n\"Looking back now, it could be my own imagination \nat that time of how powerful China could be in taking \nover the world and its desire to take back Taiwan,\" Co \nconcludes.
\nAt present, China is driven by the continued growth \nof its monopolies and foreign direct investments, \nas exemplified by its “Belt and Road Initiative\" and \ndebt-trap diplomacy, pushing poor and developing \nnations into subjugation by forging unequal loan \nagreements to supposedly fund infrastructure and \nother \"developments,\" but, in reality, excessively favors \nChinese corporate interests to ensure its imperialist \ndomination in the near future. Take the Philippines \nas a harrowing example; a continuing narrative of \nboth warning and the people's unceasing struggle to \nliberate themselves from the oppressive yoke of semi-colonialism and semi-feudalism. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1200000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1200000,"userBid":8730,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":1441920,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":1876,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/4/5/lot/136.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":135,"next":137,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}