Gao Brothers
Encyclopedia
The Gao Brothers, Zhen and Qiang, are two Chinese artists born in 1956 and 1962, in Jinan
, in the province of Shandong
located in the north east of China
.
Nowadays, they work in the artists district called 798 Art Zone in the Dashanzi Art District.
Committed and socially engaged artists, they approach arts as a mean of political expression. The image of Mao is a recurring image of their iconography. It takes its source in their experience of a childhood trauma. Gao Zhen, the elder brother, explained through an interpreter that “1968 was a crucial moment in the Cultural revolution, where many political “cleanings” took place. Our father, a simple laborer was thrown into jail. We still don’t know if he actually committed suicide as the authorities told us or if he was killed during his incarceration”. ». At that time, Gao Zhen was 12 years old and Gao Qiang was only 6.
Today, the Gao Brothers have reached international acclaim. A retrospective of their work, “Gao Brothers : Grandeur and Catharsis” was organized by the Kemper Museum from 2010, September 17 to 2011, January 2. A brief presentation of their work shows us the multifaceted nature of their art : the brothers combine diverse mediums such as painting, sculpture, performance, photography, etc. Above all, brotherhood is at the heart of their creation.
Normal University (Qufu is the hometown of the great thinker, educator and politician, Confucius
).
The two brothers’ artistic and intellectual influences merge together through their creations where Beauty seems generated by pertinent messages spoken through a language of harmonious form. The notion of “brotherhood”, inspired by their own relationship, becomes a message for all humanity. Very quickly, they became coauthors of their work and became involved in political causes. In 2002, the Gao Brothers left Shandong to settle in Beijing.
Their art is protean, they refuse to be limited to only one medium, what is most important is the message at hand they are attempting to convey through their work.
in his work, the Gao enlarge and transform their model, creating an object at once grotesque and spiritual.
known as “altermodernity” Bourriaud,. which begins with the idea that today's artists live in a globalized culture which should be used not to deny their individuality but to create a new modernity, one made of openness and intercultural exchange. The execution of Christ illustrates this concept very well because it combines two fundamentally different cultures while clearly preserving one another.
Christianity never really caught on in China, and Mao was never really feared by Christianity. On the other hand, as seen from an Asian point of view, the work retains a strong political sense when one understands China’s history and the repression of various religions under Mao’s reign. Viewed from the western world, the work can change its signification completely : that is, if we only see it as the voluntary sacrifice of Christ. Fortunately the title is clear: it is not a sacrifice but an execution, and given that the fees to pay for the ball which was used to execute a man in China were charged to his parents, does this suggest that God himselfshould be the one to pay the bill?
It’s impossible to understand the Gao Brother’s art without correlating it to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
. The firing of Hu Yaobang
’s and his disappearance encouraged the students’ protest on Tiananmen on April 21, 1989. The demonstrations lasted until the beginning of June, when authorities decided to repress the revolt. The Chinese army repression on June 4, 1989 making an impression on both Chinese people and the international opinion. Numerous arrests occurred after repression.
The Gao Brothers painted a sort of memorial in honor of the victims. An open hand, a hole at its center representing a bloody wound, now stands in front of Tiananmen Square. It looks like a Christian iconography representative of crucifixion. Victims of the 1989’s repression have been depicted like martyrs sacrificied for the cause of democracy. In the sky we can make out human forms which fly above the square like ghosts which haunt awaiting peace. Across the hand’s palm a red Forbidden City appears on a yellow background, the color of the Emperor.
The photographic work of the Gao Brothers have assured them international fame. Their series Sense of Space depicts the brothers and other anonymous models, naked, locked in boxes labeled among titles such as Prayer, Waiting, Anxiety and Pain. Contorted bodies attempt to enter into boxes too small for them. Parables of the Chinese “social straitjacket”, their work can take on a universal significance. Any social organization forces the individual to comply with rules which, taken individually, become bothersome. In terms of this, the messages conveyed by the art of the Gao Brothers crosses boundaries borders and can be understood to some degree in the Eastern and Western worlds. Some pictures show the bodies of naked men of the same size, causing each model to appear even more anonymous. The final images give the impression that the same individual has been duplicated, finding himself throughout the entire composition.
For about ten years, the Gao Brothers have organized performances around the idea of Hugging, a 15 minutes couple embrace and then a collective embrace of 5 minutes occurs. Some models are dressed, others are naked. Since 2000, nearly 150 people, meeting each other for the first time through this experience, have embraced each other through organized meetings of this sort.
GROSS, Sylvia Maria, Interview of The Gao Brothers, KCUR-FM, exhibition at the Kemper museum in September 2010, http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&sid=16&pid=77&id=1701642
The Gao Brothers, Duncan Miller Gallery, 2010.
The Gao brothers, Grandeur & catharsis, Kemper museum of contemporary art, 2010.
« In China, a Headless Mao Is a Game of Cat and Mouse », in The New York Times, October 5, 2009
Gao brothers, Benamou Gallery, Paris, 2007.
Un autre monde, les frères Gao, Les rencontres d’Arles, 2007
GOLD, “Artist brothers test Chinese boundaries”, in Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2005.
Jinan
Jinan is the capital of Shandong province in Eastern China. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of the region from the earliest beginnings of civilisation and has evolved into a major national administrative, economic, and transportation hub...
, in the province of Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
located in the north east of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Nowadays, they work in the artists district called 798 Art Zone in the Dashanzi Art District.
Committed and socially engaged artists, they approach arts as a mean of political expression. The image of Mao is a recurring image of their iconography. It takes its source in their experience of a childhood trauma. Gao Zhen, the elder brother, explained through an interpreter that “1968 was a crucial moment in the Cultural revolution, where many political “cleanings” took place. Our father, a simple laborer was thrown into jail. We still don’t know if he actually committed suicide as the authorities told us or if he was killed during his incarceration”. ». At that time, Gao Zhen was 12 years old and Gao Qiang was only 6.
Today, the Gao Brothers have reached international acclaim. A retrospective of their work, “Gao Brothers : Grandeur and Catharsis” was organized by the Kemper Museum from 2010, September 17 to 2011, January 2. A brief presentation of their work shows us the multifaceted nature of their art : the brothers combine diverse mediums such as painting, sculpture, performance, photography, etc. Above all, brotherhood is at the heart of their creation.
Biography
Both brothers were initiated in their youth to Chinese traditional art before they began their college studies. The older brother graduated from Shandong Academy of Fine Arts and the younger brother from QufuQufu
Qufu is a city in southwestern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is located at 35° 36′ northern latitude and 117° 02′ east, about south of the provincial capital Jinan and northeast of the prefecture seat at Jining...
Normal University (Qufu is the hometown of the great thinker, educator and politician, Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
).
The two brothers’ artistic and intellectual influences merge together through their creations where Beauty seems generated by pertinent messages spoken through a language of harmonious form. The notion of “brotherhood”, inspired by their own relationship, becomes a message for all humanity. Very quickly, they became coauthors of their work and became involved in political causes. In 2002, the Gao Brothers left Shandong to settle in Beijing.
Their art is protean, they refuse to be limited to only one medium, what is most important is the message at hand they are attempting to convey through their work.
Art
Midnight Mass
The Gao Brothers entered the artistic sphere in 1989 by way of a collective exhibition organized at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) where they exhibited their piece, Midnight Mass, an inflatable installation representing a hermaphrodite sexual organ measuring 4 meters high. Midnight Mass borrows from surrealism the technique of the body’s fragmentation and the notion of the “Anatomy of desire” from Hans Bellmer. However, both the material used (inflatable plastic) and the dimensions of the work bring it into the realm of contemporary art. As does Claes OldenburgClaes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
in his work, the Gao enlarge and transform their model, creating an object at once grotesque and spiritual.
'Miss Mao
With her big boobs and her long nose, Miss Mao, Mao Zedong's monumental icon, appears as a hybridization of Minnie and Pinocchio. She is a grotesque image of a monstrous mother figure and a liar. As Claude Hudelot and Guy Gallice, show in their book, The Mao, the abundant iconography of Mao spans 60 years of Chinese folk art, depicting tirelessly the images of worship of the Great Helmsman. Given the escalation of propaganda and the power of the image used in advertising, artists are left with a natural choice to divert and distort theses images, often in an exaggerated and grotesque manner.The Execution of Christ
In 2009, the Gao Brothers abandoned the modernity of resin, turning towards the austerity of bronze. The execution of Christ represents seven soldiers shooting Christ. The picture of Mao with a gun was taken in 1964, April 28. This parable refers to the concept developed by Nicolas BourriaudNicolas Bourriaud
Nicolas Bourriaud is a French curator and art critic. He co-founded, and from 1999 to 2006 was co-director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris together with Jerôme Sans. He was also founder and director of the contemporary art magazine Documents sur l'art , and correspondent in Paris for Flash Art from...
known as “altermodernity” Bourriaud,. which begins with the idea that today's artists live in a globalized culture which should be used not to deny their individuality but to create a new modernity, one made of openness and intercultural exchange. The execution of Christ illustrates this concept very well because it combines two fundamentally different cultures while clearly preserving one another.
Christianity never really caught on in China, and Mao was never really feared by Christianity. On the other hand, as seen from an Asian point of view, the work retains a strong political sense when one understands China’s history and the repression of various religions under Mao’s reign. Viewed from the western world, the work can change its signification completely : that is, if we only see it as the voluntary sacrifice of Christ. Fortunately the title is clear: it is not a sacrifice but an execution, and given that the fees to pay for the ball which was used to execute a man in China were charged to his parents, does this suggest that God himselfshould be the one to pay the bill?
Paintings
If time reversed, Memory 1989It’s impossible to understand the Gao Brother’s art without correlating it to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. The firing of Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang was a leader of the People's Republic of China who served as both Chairman and Party General Secretary. Hu joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping...
’s and his disappearance encouraged the students’ protest on Tiananmen on April 21, 1989. The demonstrations lasted until the beginning of June, when authorities decided to repress the revolt. The Chinese army repression on June 4, 1989 making an impression on both Chinese people and the international opinion. Numerous arrests occurred after repression.
The Gao Brothers painted a sort of memorial in honor of the victims. An open hand, a hole at its center representing a bloody wound, now stands in front of Tiananmen Square. It looks like a Christian iconography representative of crucifixion. Victims of the 1989’s repression have been depicted like martyrs sacrificied for the cause of democracy. In the sky we can make out human forms which fly above the square like ghosts which haunt awaiting peace. Across the hand’s palm a red Forbidden City appears on a yellow background, the color of the Emperor.
Photography and international reputation
The Sense of Space’s seriesThe photographic work of the Gao Brothers have assured them international fame. Their series Sense of Space depicts the brothers and other anonymous models, naked, locked in boxes labeled among titles such as Prayer, Waiting, Anxiety and Pain. Contorted bodies attempt to enter into boxes too small for them. Parables of the Chinese “social straitjacket”, their work can take on a universal significance. Any social organization forces the individual to comply with rules which, taken individually, become bothersome. In terms of this, the messages conveyed by the art of the Gao Brothers crosses boundaries borders and can be understood to some degree in the Eastern and Western worlds. Some pictures show the bodies of naked men of the same size, causing each model to appear even more anonymous. The final images give the impression that the same individual has been duplicated, finding himself throughout the entire composition.
Performances
From 2000 : The HugFor about ten years, the Gao Brothers have organized performances around the idea of Hugging, a 15 minutes couple embrace and then a collective embrace of 5 minutes occurs. Some models are dressed, others are naked. Since 2000, nearly 150 people, meeting each other for the first time through this experience, have embraced each other through organized meetings of this sort.
Further reading
Gao Brothers, Portraits, China Art archives and Warehouse, 2010.GROSS, Sylvia Maria, Interview of The Gao Brothers, KCUR-FM, exhibition at the Kemper museum in September 2010, http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&sid=16&pid=77&id=1701642
The Gao Brothers, Duncan Miller Gallery, 2010.
The Gao brothers, Grandeur & catharsis, Kemper museum of contemporary art, 2010.
« In China, a Headless Mao Is a Game of Cat and Mouse », in The New York Times, October 5, 2009
Gao brothers, Benamou Gallery, Paris, 2007.
Un autre monde, les frères Gao, Les rencontres d’Arles, 2007
GOLD, “Artist brothers test Chinese boundaries”, in Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2005.