History writ large: Big-character posters, red logorrhoea and the art of words

In 1986, the Zhoushan-based artist Wu Shanzhuan worked with other recent art school graduates to create an installation called 'Red Humour' (hongse youmo). It featured a room covered in the graffiti-like remnants of big-character posters (dazi bao) that recalled the Cultural Revolution whe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Portal (Sydney, N.S.W.) N.S.W.), 2012-01, Vol.9 (3), p.1-35
Main Author: Barme, Geremie R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Art Works
Artists
Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution (China : 1966-1976)
Deconstruction
Democracy
Discourse
Emotions
Humor
Peoples Republic of China
Political discourse
Politics
Politics and culture
Revolutions
Social aspects
Social change
Socialism
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Summary:In 1986, the Zhoushan-based artist Wu Shanzhuan worked with other recent art school graduates to create an installation called 'Red Humour' (hongse youmo). It featured a room covered in the graffiti-like remnants of big-character posters (dazi bao) that recalled the Cultural Revolution when hand-written posters replete with vitriol and denunciations of the enemies of Mao Zedong Thought were one of the main cultural weapons in the hands of revolutionary radicals. It was an ironic attempt to recapture the overwhelming and manic mood engendered by the red sea of big-character posters that swelled up in Beijing from mid 1966 and developed into a movement to 'paint the nation red' with word-images during the second half of that year and in 1967. In the reduced and concentrated form of an art installation Wu attempted to replicate the stifling environment of the written logorrhoea of High-Maoist China.
ISSN:1449-2490
1449-2490
DOI:10.5130/portal.v9i3.2645