Leaseholds
Mao Tongqiang
毛同强
Production date
2016
Object Detail
Media
land ownership papers from various periods in China's history, found picture frames
Measurements
500 land ownership papers, dimensions variable
Notes
Land reform has been a constant theme in modern Chinese history, and
so too it is a leitmotif in Mao Tongqiang’s practice. Leaseholds (2016) is a collection of 500 land title deeds, collected by the artist over three years. Shown in various iterations, including as an arrangement of 1300 documents in 2009, these fragile paper artefacts (some dating back to the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries) were once the treasured possessions of rural families, before all land reverted to state ownership. On 30 June 1950 the Land Reform Law confiscated land from former landlords and redistributed it to landless peasant farmers. As a result of these first reforms, in many cases peasant farmers held, for the first time, a title deed to the plot of land they farmed. But not for long: by 1953 the process of collectivisation was under way, and the land given to the peasants was gradually returned to the state. Mao Tongqiang’s installation traces how land has been owned and occupied in modern China. Each separate document illustrates a small part of a complex history – some are from the Manchukuo puppet regime established by the Japanese (1932–45), some from areas under the control of the Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, and others from areas occupied by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces. Some later deeds reveal the dramatic shifts in domestic policy in recent years. The framed, stained papers, with their faded stamps and official seals are evocative historical artefacts; arranged on the wall and across the floor of the gallery space they provide tangible evidence of how changing ideologies impact the lives of ordinary people.
so too it is a leitmotif in Mao Tongqiang’s practice. Leaseholds (2016) is a collection of 500 land title deeds, collected by the artist over three years. Shown in various iterations, including as an arrangement of 1300 documents in 2009, these fragile paper artefacts (some dating back to the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries) were once the treasured possessions of rural families, before all land reverted to state ownership. On 30 June 1950 the Land Reform Law confiscated land from former landlords and redistributed it to landless peasant farmers. As a result of these first reforms, in many cases peasant farmers held, for the first time, a title deed to the plot of land they farmed. But not for long: by 1953 the process of collectivisation was under way, and the land given to the peasants was gradually returned to the state. Mao Tongqiang’s installation traces how land has been owned and occupied in modern China. Each separate document illustrates a small part of a complex history – some are from the Manchukuo puppet regime established by the Japanese (1932–45), some from areas under the control of the Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, and others from areas occupied by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces. Some later deeds reveal the dramatic shifts in domestic policy in recent years. The framed, stained papers, with their faded stamps and official seals are evocative historical artefacts; arranged on the wall and across the floor of the gallery space they provide tangible evidence of how changing ideologies impact the lives of ordinary people.
Accession number
2018.059