Between Past and Future

credits
Ma Liuming, Fen Ma Liuming Walks on the Great Wall (1998). A member of the artistic generation that developed in Beijing in the mid-1990s, Ma Liuming adopted the performance identity of “Fen Ma Liuming,” a lithe, androgynous creature. His nude walk on the Great Wall, presented in the exhibition as both a photo work and a video, contrasts the solidity of the Wall—the paramount symbol of China’s historic power—with the fragility and ephemeral presence of the individual.
The works in this section explore the contemporary legacy of China’s past. Some artists, for example, update motifs drawn from the rich heritage of Chinese art. Still others examine the consequences of such recent historical moments as the Cultural Revolution, a period of traumatic upheaval that many of the artists experienced in their childhood.
Ma Liuming
 
Asia Society History and Memory Reimaging the Body People and Place Performing the Self International Center of Photography
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