Ink Media #4
2011-2013
The artist uses traditional tools of Chinese art—black ink on paper—to depict photographs of mass demonstrations sourced from internet media. Some of the uprisings against political and financial abuses of power represented here include Egyptian protesters at Tahrir Square, Cairo, demanding an end to the Mubarak regime and emergency law in 2011; Occupy Wall Street of 2011 in New York City; and the 2012 demonstration for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Chen’s brush makes them visually uniform and monochrome to emphasize these struggles as part of a global, collective memory. Inserting one picture of a playful water-pistol fight during a Toronto gay pride parade, he also illustrates how easily we can misinterpret decontextualized images.
Chen Shaoxiong was an experimental artist who addressed the major challenges faced by society as a result of urbanization and globalization. Working in installation, photographic montage, video, and collective performance, he was a founder of the Big Tail Elephant Group, an influential artist collective of the 1980s in Guangzhou (southern China).
Ink on lightweight Chinese paper
Image size: 18 x 27 1/2 in. (45.7 x 69.9 cm)
Sheet size: 22 x 31 1/2 in. (55.9 x 80 cm)
Asian Art Acquisition Fund
2014.33.1
Provenance: The artist; purchased by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2014
Photo: Scott Leen
