Orchid Finger
Tang Maohong
唐茂宏
Production date
2004
Object Detail
Media
three-channel video animation (color, sound)
Measurements
8 min 12 sec
Notes
Tang Maohong’s Orchid Finger video animation and silkscreen prints present images displayed in circular frames reminiscent of classical Chinese gongbi paintings, or moon windows in a Chinese garden. The imagery includes the traditional – lotus flowers, willow stems, pagodas and orchids – but the classical theme ends there, as the video creates surreal vignettes of cherry blossom and cranes emerging from the mouth of a prone male head, a pagoda with flashing lights bursting forth from the chest of a naked figure, clumps of giant mushrooms and a mushroom cloud rising from a man’s groin, and animals of all kinds copulating frantically on a table, amidst a gathering of faceless onlookers. The work’s title alludes to the stylised finger patterns in Beijing Opera which emulate the appearance of flower petals, an indication of the fantastical theatricality of the work and its ambiguous allegorical nature.
Accession number
2006.068