Guardian Figure

Chu was primarily a sculptor whose wry mixed-media work--in wood, metal, resin, fabric, leather, or porcelain--blends elements from East Asian and Western cultures, and ancient and modern times. She also created related watercolors, such as this one. In "Guardian Figure," Chu offers her interpretation of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) tomb guardian. Tomb guardians are sculptural figures who were thought to serve and protect the tomb's inhabitant in the afterlife. In translating this subject into two dimensions, Chu uses a style that recalls Fauvism, the early twentieth-century European art movement that emphasized the expressionistic qualities of color.