Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head
The Gao Brothers 
Corner space at the intersection of Elmbridge and Alderbridge Way.
Included in the Vancouver International Biennale, this work by the renowned Chinese artist team The Gao Brothers, is temporarily installed in Richmond until Summer 2011.
This large scale sculpture features two iconic figures in shiny polished stainless steel, a diminutive Miss Mao delicately balancing on the head Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary whose monumental ideas profoundly influenced Chinese political history. This potentially controversial sculpture is part of the Gao Brothers’ Miss Mao series, often described as “cynical realism.”
This sculpture can be “read” as a political narrative, as well as a reflection on the current nostalgic attitude toward Mao. The position and scale of the two figures simultaneously questions and ridicules their relative positions in an undeniable commentary. The Gao Brothers have consciously chosen to play the role of social critic and therefore walk a careful line in terms of politics.
The Gao Brothers were born in Jinan, Shandong province, Gao Zhen in 1956 and Gao Qiang in 1962. Their family was tragically affected by the Cultural Revolution when their father was executed in 1968 due to his “intellectual & bourgeois” tendencies. The brothers now live and work in Beijing, where they have been collaborating since the mid-1980s, when they joined the ‘New Wave’ movement of post- revolutionary modern art in China by producing influential photographic and performance-based work.
The Gao Brother’s piece is just one of the sculptures residents and visitors will see throughout Richmond during the Sculpture Biennale which runs through 2011.
For the media release on this art work see:
http://www.richmond.ca/news/city/secondbiennale.com
For additional information see: www.vancouverbiennale.com or www.gaobrothers.net
All photographs by Christina Lazar-Schuler
