Anxiety
Bu Hua
卜桦
Production date
2009
Object Detail
Media
video animation (colour, sound)
Measurements
3 min 24 sec
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. In some works she is dressed like a schoolchild of the revolutionary past in a red Young Pioneers scarf and short skirt. In others she runs naked through a strange universe of towering flora and fauna. 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. Bu Hua has become deeply invested in her own creation. “When I first started creating her all I thought about was creating a cute character, but with the emotion and process of painting I discovered I was in love with this nostalgic Beijing style. Through the character she has invented Bu Hua provides a dispassionate commentary on the contemporary world of Beijing and China.
Accession number
2010.077