Car Door
Feng Yan
封岩
Production date
2006
Object Detail
Media
C-type print
Measurements
131 x 167 cm framed
Notes
Each work in the ‘Power’ series features a detail of an automobile that was once owned by Mao Zedong – although the artist prefers not to make this entirely explicit. Feng Yan photographed the car at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution, and it left a deep impression on him of the nexus between power and violence. These details of shiny chrome and duco, a white-walled tyre and the red carpet of the place where the vehicle is displayed reveal the reality of power. The luxury ‘Jisi/ZIS 110’ sedan, a gift from Stalin, was designed for the powerful political élite and every aspect from the body to the windows is designed to be bullet proof. The luxurious and elegant limousine symbolises the distance of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party from the masses in this People’s Republic. Behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, centre of power in Beijing, or behind the tinted windows of a car such as this, Mao and his successors are removed from the struggles of the lao bai xing. The photographer’s distorted image is reflected in the bumper bar. Two bullet holes mar the impenetrable black glossiness of the door – a mystery to which we will never know the answer.
Accession number
2007.031