Brisbane Daily Photo : For me? Oh, you shouldn't have!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

For me? Oh, you shouldn't have!

Zhu Weibing, Ji Wenyu | People holding flowers

Many mini men at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art...aren't they lovely? You can just make out the real-sized people in the background.

3 comments:

Julie said...: The mini-men look Chinese. Is this a comment on Copenhagen?; December 15, 2009 at 9:27 AM
cara said...: No, it's a bit too old for that, I think. Here's what the website says...

"People holding flowers" contains potent symbolism for Chinese culture: the flowers recall Mao Zedong’s encouragement of intellectuals to debate a range of policy solutions and criticise bureaucracy, stating that he meant to ‘let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend’. However, by the middle of 1957, an overwhelming response to Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign led to serious crackdowns on dissent.

With the soft, fleshy flowers raised high, this installation appears attractive and harmless. But while the work’s mood is buoyant and celebratory, the repetition of forms and lack of differentiation between individuals question the homogenising effects of mass ideology, be it communism or capitalism.

Interesting, no?; December 15, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Hilda said...: Fantastic!

In the portal, I thought they were real men and that something was going on.

I like the explanation for this piece.; December 15, 2009 at 9:09 PM