Xiaogang Caves 009
Zhou Zixi
周子曦
Production date
2014
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
300 x 450 cm
Notes
The Xiaogang Caves series of paintings deals with history. Xiaogang Caves 009, for example, depicts a scene reminiscent of an ancient grotto, similar to the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, along the Silk Road. Instead of stone carvings of Buddhist deities, however, Zhou has painted human figures who appear to be prisoners, lined up along the rock face as if awaiting a firing squad. They wear the simple, uniform-like clothing of the Mao era, and their heads are bowed in defeat. Zhou has said that the character on the left represents an intellectual criticised during the Cultural Revolution, the second a land-owner during the period of land reform, the third a so-called ‘female rogue’; the two figures on the right represent figures from the Anti-Rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution. Zhou has made an ironic insertion, chilling in its juxtaposition of the horrors of the past with the ahistorical present. In the foreground, the small figure of a female tourist, her bright clothing contrasting with the greys of the canvas, raises her hands in the ‘V’ sign common to selfie-takers and tourist snapshot poses. Zhou says that even monuments to past trauma inevitably become sightseeing spots. He asks us to consider how we become desensitised to horror, and to examine our own indifference. Xiaogang Caves 009, like Dawn–Light Fog, suggests the process in China –and elsewhere – of erasing politically inconvenient truths from the past in order to focus on the glorious present.
Accession number
2016.034