Lu Hao

Sculpted in perspex, the present work comes from a series of four works combining cold, airy sculptural renderings of major buildings in Beijing’s cultural and political life with live, colorful elements. The artist here has modeled the Great Hall of the People—the massive, Soviet-style building which sits on Tian’anmen Square and where the National People’s Congress meets. Flowers protrude from the sculpture, raised like the hands of representatives inside the building in approval of a statute up for review by the typically complicit body. The roses also refer to the “Hundred Flowers” campaign of the late 1950s, in which intellectuals were encouraged to voice divergent opinions on Maoist policy, only to see the most critical censured during the ensuing Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1959.

The present work, and the series to which it belongs, were a major presence at the 1999 Venice Biennale, which included 19 Chinese artists and marked the high tide of the post-1989 “Political Pop” artists. The other three works in the series include a model of the National Gallery housing several parakeets, the Tian’anmen rostrum doubling as a fishtank, and the entrance to the main leadership compound, housing several grasshoppers. In each work, the contrast between the building rendered and the element inserted resonates with the viewer acquainted with the current Chinese cultural and ideological climate. The birds in the museum, for example, chirp away at each other like state painters admiring the exhibitions typically held there. At the same time, these four natural elements comprise central motifs in Chinese ink painting, a tradition in which the artist is also proficient.