Beauty 3
Bu Hua
卜桦
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
pigmented inkjet print
Measurements
100 x 100 cm
Notes
In Beijing dialect the term ‘sa mi’ means a fearless girl, confident and free from self-doubt. In fact, a girl with “swagger” says Bu Hua. The feisty, self-possessed, small female child that she has brought to life in her digital still images, woodblock prints and animations is ‘sa mi’. Sassy and unafraid, pigtails swinging, she is sometimes depicted smoking a cigarette and staring bravely into the middle distance, or, as here, confronting a huge blowfly symbolizing corruption. This character, a key protagonist in almost all of Bu Hua’s video and still images, is based on the artist as a child - a defiant Young Pioneer, plaits and red scarf flying. She bravely navigates the surreal landscape of the new China, encountering strange beasts, mystical forests, hideous pollution and rapacious developers, somehow emerging victorious. She is a more confident version of the artist herself, says Bu Hua, a fearless alter ego. She represents a yearning for a less complicated past – a nostalgia for a China that may be imaginary and idealised.
Accession number
2008.005