Past,Present and Future

Past, Present and Future, 170x(283+212+283)cm, 2001

To keep track of my reflection on our past, my consideration of our present, and my depiction of future, I find the urban state sculpture iconography can often best reveal our history and our ideals in China. However, I  alter the sculptures, posing implicit doubt on what we have achieved and what we are expecting. With such “doubt”, I portray myself as a bystander in the photograph as a bystander in the triptych work entitled “Past, Present, and Future” (2001). Models are smeared with mud, silver and golden powder hinting at the changes in time from the revolutionary times to the modernization age, and on to the future toward which we aspire. The poses of the models imitate those on the monumental Communist state sculptures still found in some cities in China. I hope this work achieves the effect of reflecting upon the history of the past, reconstruction of the present and the beauty of the future.

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