Brother and Sister 3
Huang Yan
黄岩
Production date
2006
Object Detail
Media
C-type print
Measurements
100 x 120 cm
Notes
Sometimes described as ‘fusion and paradox’, in Huang Yan’s Brother and Sister series of photographs the Chinese identity of his subjects is literally ‘written’ on their skin. Posed as if for formal portraits – indeed, recalling ancestor portraits – two young children stand against a blank white background wearing their school uniform of crisp white shirt and red ‘Young Pioneer’ scarf. Their faces have been painted a startling dead white, obliterating any hint of individuality, and overlaying their features appears imagery from Song or Yuan Dynasty literati painting: on the boy, a typical shan shui landscape scene of mountain peaks receding into the distance, and on his pigtailed sister’s face a bird and flower painting. The paintings are made by Huang Yan’s wife, Zhang Tiemei, an accomplished and classically trained artist. These children are masked by their Chineseness, their national identity worn like a uniform. By posing his young subjects like the traditional portraits of emperors and their consorts and removing any sense of childish spontaneity or individuality, is Huang Yan suggesting that Chineseness and the weight of China’s history is a burden? Perhaps he is, rather, alluding to the fact that this rich vein of art and culture continues into the contemporary world, despite the homogenising impact of globalisation and modernity.
Accession number
2006.020