Saturday, October 11, 2008

Rewriting History Through Art

The new Saatchi Gallary opened in London this week featuring the exhibition entitled "The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art". Featured artists Shi Xinning's work is influenced by social realism, history, politics, and iconic imagery. Shi's work stirs up counterfactual accounts of monumental history and explores historical projections of Western Eurocentracism and Eastern isolationism.



Above is Shi's featured painting entitled, Yalta No. 2. Shi has rewritten history to encorporate Mao among Churchill, FDR, and Stalin. Below is the original photograph. I am reminded of the similarities in statism across the spectrum and think about what a bleak future it will be without liberty in trade and politics.