Major Project Concept Statement
The inspiration of my major project is from the Cultural Revolution. It took place in China from 1966 to 1976. It has been the worst ten years of China. 30 million people are killed during that time. Chairman Mao leaded this movement in order to prevent the rise of capitalism in China, and also bring an end to Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Then the government was controlled by counterrevolutionary group. The Red Guards started with removing the Four Olds, but then evolved to stealing properties, physically abusing people and destroying cultural relics. Lots of intellectuals such as writers, teachers, and artists were killed during that time.
The main idea of my work is to reflect a typical intellectual at that time and to show sympathy to the loss of Cultural Revolution. One thing that comes to my mind is the old photograph at that time. Artist Xiaogang Zhang did series of paintings called ‘Bloodline-the big family’ focusing on the old photographs at that time. The repressed, controlled and unfree feeling are strongly implied in these photographs. The costumes in these paintings are very typical as well. So I picked the Mandarin jacket as the photoshoot. It was very popular in the Qing dynasty. So it wasn’t the best cloth that represents people in Cultural Revolution. But it is still treated as an expensive noble clothing at that time for intellectuals. I also picked wire-rimmed glasses to represent the people with knowledge.
The other major element of my work is calligraphy over the whole figure. Artists Shirin Neshat and Lalla Essaydi inspired me as whole calligraphy will impact the artwork. ‘Rebellious Silence’ and ‘Converging Territories’ are both photoshoot of muslin women covered by Islamic calligraphy. These artists were born muslin but raised in a western culture. It is easier for them to dig back their own culture and critically interpret them in a new way.
The words I chose to write is from a book called ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao’. It basically talks about the political structures of China and how people should do to remain social democracy. It is special because everyone in that period have to read it. It is an example of persecution to people at that time. Where human were brainwashed by these words. I used these words to cover the whole clothing, neck, face and glasses to emphasize the impact of false behavior during Cultural Revolution. These words were chosen in random order. Sometimes it could be read as a sentence, sometimes it doesn’t connect and make sense. But most of the words were chosen because they sounds more political than the rest in the book. The impact of political environment are very important in my work. The fount of these words are bold face. The color is red. The fount is inspired by the poster at that time. These posters were made to denounce the intellectuals. Red often represents seriousness and warning in calligraphy. The calligraphy all over the body is a symbol of blood coming out of the body. I photoshoped five yellow stars on some of the photographs. Some of them represent tear on face, others are zippers on mouth. These stars were originally from the flag. They all have different meanings. For instance, the biggest star represents the political party, the small stars represents different stages of people such as workers, framers. I reinterpreted them in different positions to express accurate emotions of the character. The unhappy facial expressions and backlight also emphasizes the repressed heavy feeling of the photographs.
The concept of this work makes me experiences the human at that time. It brings me the question why human in that environment can do such non-human behaviors. According to psychology, the two true human need is attack and sex. In other words, it’s freedom and love. At that time, the society was highly repressed and controlled by the government. The true needs of human can’t be accomplished. Thus, the environment became chaotic. Anti-humanity behavior were everywhere. The victims at that time were harshly suffered, hopeless and lost everything in their life. To express and experience the intellectual of that time explores the non-human behavior in human.
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