China Avant Garde 2007
Running through November 3rd, 2007
••• the Gao Brothers •••
Mao said that the communist party was the mother of all the people?and Pinnocchio was a persistent liar, Gao Qiang, June 2006
LIMN Gallery is pleased to present the work of the Gao Brothers. For nearly twenty years, Gao Qiang and Gao Zhen have been exploring the profound changes faced by China. Through photography, they literally direct our gaze to the impact of urbanization and globalization and their cultural and spiritual impact on contemporary Chinese society. They are also enorrmously influenced by the history of the Cultural Revolution; their father was shot during its height after being accused of “bourgeois and intellectual tendencies.” The Gao Brothers’ work is divided into four categories: performance art, staged photography, documentary and most recently computer art. Provocative, poignant, poetic and often political, their photographs have on and off been subjected to censorship for over 15 years. “Hugging project”, by far their most famous, is an international performance in which they encourage strangers to hug each other, something fairly uncommon in China. But defacing Mao’s portrait is the recurring symbol of their work for which they have gained international acclaim. Most recently, the Gao Brothers have produced MISS MAO, a fiberglass sculpture representing a stylized Mao bust with a Pinocchio nose. Despite still strong censorship, the Gao Brothers continue to engage their audience in examining modes and myths.
The Gao Brothers are currently representing China at Photography Festival in Arles, France. This is their first solo show in San Francisco.
••• Passing Time: Chinese Photogrpahy: 1966-2006 •••
Xiao Zhuang, Gong Jianhua, Zang Xiaoyong
LIMN Gallery is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition in the United States of photographic work by Xiao Zhuang, Gong Jianhua and Zhang Xianyong.
Xiao Zhuang experienced the Cultural Revolution first hand as a photojournalist when she started working for Xianhua News Daily in 1952. She documented the radical social and cultural changes that took place under Mao’s watch. For ten years (1966-76), Xiao Zhuang traveled through China to record the spread of the “Little Red Book” doctrine and the propagation of communism the Chinese way. Although widely used as propaganda, her images are a testimonial of making history one image at the time.
Gong Jianhua shot his first photograph in the early eighties. He has since devoted his time to recording the alleyways of Shanghai, know locally as “nong tangs”. Since the aftermaths of the Cultural Revolution, Shanghai has resumed its reputation as a scintillating city. However, it is also a city that struggles to preserve its identity despite urbanization. Jianhua’s photographs offer a unique view of the importance of urban planning and its impact on everyday quality of human life.
Zhang Xianyong is part of a new wave of young photographers emerging from China. Inspired by both traditional story telling such as the Chinese Opera and contemporary images of the West, Zhang Xianyong’s photographs are carefully staged tableaux. His work is fresh and humorous, reflecting the dilemma of finding a place inside modern China that has one foot in the past and another in the inevitable globalization of the present. Eastern and Western civilization, foreign and native culture, all of them are intermixed to form multiple combinations in the word around us. Zhang Xianyong tries to dismantle these horizontal and vertical elements, coaxing them to mingle and collide. Disorders of time and space, intersections of multiple time points, the reinterpretation of characters and events form the special characteristics of his work. Zhang Xianyong works and lives in Shanghai.
••• the Gao Brothers •••
Mao said that the communist party was the mother of all the people?and Pinnocchio was a persistent liar, Gao Qiang, June 2006
LIMN Gallery is pleased to present the work of the Gao Brothers. For nearly twenty years, Gao Qiang and Gao Zhen have been exploring the profound changes faced by China. Through photography, they literally direct our gaze to the impact of urbanization and globalization and their cultural and spiritual impact on contemporary Chinese society. They are also enorrmously influenced by the history of the Cultural Revolution; their father was shot during its height after being accused of “bourgeois and intellectual tendencies.” The Gao Brothers’ work is divided into four categories: performance art, staged photography, documentary and most recently computer art. Provocative, poignant, poetic and often political, their photographs have on and off been subjected to censorship for over 15 years. “Hugging project”, by far their most famous, is an international performance in which they encourage strangers to hug each other, something fairly uncommon in China. But defacing Mao’s portrait is the recurring symbol of their work for which they have gained international acclaim. Most recently, the Gao Brothers have produced MISS MAO, a fiberglass sculpture representing a stylized Mao bust with a Pinocchio nose. Despite still strong censorship, the Gao Brothers continue to engage their audience in examining modes and myths.
The Gao Brothers are currently representing China at Photography Festival in Arles, France. This is their first solo show in San Francisco.
••• Passing Time: Chinese Photogrpahy: 1966-2006 •••
Xiao Zhuang, Gong Jianhua, Zang Xiaoyong
LIMN Gallery is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition in the United States of photographic work by Xiao Zhuang, Gong Jianhua and Zhang Xianyong.
Xiao Zhuang experienced the Cultural Revolution first hand as a photojournalist when she started working for Xianhua News Daily in 1952. She documented the radical social and cultural changes that took place under Mao’s watch. For ten years (1966-76), Xiao Zhuang traveled through China to record the spread of the “Little Red Book” doctrine and the propagation of communism the Chinese way. Although widely used as propaganda, her images are a testimonial of making history one image at the time.
Gong Jianhua shot his first photograph in the early eighties. He has since devoted his time to recording the alleyways of Shanghai, know locally as “nong tangs”. Since the aftermaths of the Cultural Revolution, Shanghai has resumed its reputation as a scintillating city. However, it is also a city that struggles to preserve its identity despite urbanization. Jianhua’s photographs offer a unique view of the importance of urban planning and its impact on everyday quality of human life.
Zhang Xianyong is part of a new wave of young photographers emerging from China. Inspired by both traditional story telling such as the Chinese Opera and contemporary images of the West, Zhang Xianyong’s photographs are carefully staged tableaux. His work is fresh and humorous, reflecting the dilemma of finding a place inside modern China that has one foot in the past and another in the inevitable globalization of the present. Eastern and Western civilization, foreign and native culture, all of them are intermixed to form multiple combinations in the word around us. Zhang Xianyong tries to dismantle these horizontal and vertical elements, coaxing them to mingle and collide. Disorders of time and space, intersections of multiple time points, the reinterpretation of characters and events form the special characteristics of his work. Zhang Xianyong works and lives in Shanghai.
