“What Would Dante Do?” (但丁会怎么做？)

That was a happy chair.

Our It Girl, Zhang Tianyi 张天伦, maintains a curvy poise and the perfect pout on our antique-style teakwood chair, channeling the red-lipped songstresses 1930s Paramount. Wisps of LED smoke drift up from her cigarette as she waits – both as a traditional Chinese papercut and gorgeous model – for her fussy photographers to get the million-dollar shot. The photo was originally shot on a 6x17cm medium format panoramic camera and scanned on a Hasselblad x1 scanner. Dante will be travelling across the oceans to Art Seasons Gallery in sunny Singapore, where it will be shown at Art Stage 2012, Asia’s premier international art fair.

What is wrong with the third ring of Dante? The hedonistic nature of smoking, with all its connotations of luxury and decadence, belongs in the third circle. But what of it, when a vice slinks past our subconscious and morphs into an absolute, pulsating need? We luxuriate in the seduction of pushing the boundary between pleasure and necessity.  The smoke rises but does not disappear. In the taboo, in the risk, lies the allure.

Blurb credit: Lelia Pollett

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