Who Are the icons of America?• Barack Obama - - - - - - - - Ex president, first black president (The Obey piece)• Martin Luther King Jr. - - - - - - - -• Malcom X- - - - - - - - Pose with finger pointing or finger pointing to head.• Uncle Sam - - - - - - - - Red White and Blue.• Oprah Winfrey - - - - - - - - “You get…...something”• BEYONCÉ • Jay Z• George Washington - - - - - - - - MONEY, • Lincoln - - - - - - - - Lil’ Statue? And the Penny! • JFK• Clint Dempsey• Tim Tbow• (indecipherable giggling)• .

How are they visually represented?

Who Are the icons of America?• Celebrities - - - - in movies• The president - - - - TWITTER ACCOUNT Ugh.• “Lady Liberty.” - - - - Physical representations, or sport-ball teams• Uncle Sam• GEORGE Washington • Ben Franklin - - - - CASH MONEY • Abraham Lincoln• (faces on currency)• Alexander Hamilton (WHAT’S YA NAME!!!!)• Barack Obama - - - - A supreme shirt in Sakin’s closet.• Rosie the Rivetter - - - - T-SHIRTS, bags, buttons, posters, • .• .• .

How are they visually represented?

Hongtu Zhang

• Christian: He distorts pictures of an icon: Mao Zedong (dictator, leader, general, brought about the Cultural Revolution)

• Azalea: It’s like he did what we just did. Like he painted the face of Mao in different ways

• Jen: Disrespecting???• Levy: Referencing

STALIN, Picasso, and other artists

Hongtu Zhang

• Discombobulated.• These all make fun of

the Emperor, err….dictator....er....what is he?

• Mao Zedong • This reminds me of

Andy Warhol’s Campbells Soup Cans (Pop Art!!! Different iterations of the same subject)

• .

Andy WarholCampbells Soup Cans1962 Silkscreen on canvas.

Hongtu Zhang

Zhang Hongtu was born and raised in a devoted Chinese Muslim family in Gansu Province in western China. He studied art in Beijing early in his life, and live there during the Cultural Revolution. He also studied ancient cave painting in remote areas of western China.

In 1982 he moved to New York City, where he’s been living since. His artwork is a blend of Pop Art, history, culture, and politics. Often, he is known for combining elements of Eastern and Western visuals.

Hongtu Zhang

In the early 1980s, Zhang turned his critical eye to his experiences of immigrant life in New York. Coming to the U.S. was a positive step for his creative expression, but living in a new place had its own challenges. Many pieces from this period, including A Walking Man (1983-4) and Fish(1985), made while Zhang studied at the Art Students League, convey a darker mood.

(Queens museum)

Hongtu Zhang

Soy Sauce Calligraphy1995Soy Sauce on Paper

Others begin to reveal Zhang’s ability to combine materials and cultural signifiers for subversive effects, like Soy Sauce Calligraphy(1995), a remake of a sweatshop “help wanted” ad—something quite common to New York’s Chinatown in the 1980s—in the style of traditional Chinese calligraphy. (Queens museum)

Hongtu Zhang

Mao in Soy SauceDate unknown

Others begin to reveal Zhang’s ability to combine materials and cultural signifiers for subversive effects, like Soy Sauce Calligraphy(1995), a remake of a sweatshop “help wanted” ad—something quite common to New York’s Chinatown in the 1980s—in the style of traditional Chinese calligraphy. (Queens museum)

MAO ZEDONG

HONGTU ZHANGChairman MaoPaper collage and mixed media on canvas

MAO ZEDONG

HONGTU ZHANGNo. 29 (from Long live Chairman Mao series)1989

MAO ZEDONG

HONGTU ZHANGPing-pong Mao1995

Hongtu Zhang

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOcwwLaPVrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr0m204A7j8

• Kendell: He’s emotional about talking about the Cultural Revolution and how violent it was. He describes it with horrible imagery.

• Benz: He seems passionate about this historical moment and how it’s remembered versus how it actually happened. .. but also self loathing about not stepping up to be involved.

• Delani: He seems traumatized the way he describes the bodies of dead kids he saw.

• Levy: He’s super impassioned ….everything. He loads it all with meaning.

• Gya: It doesn’t matter how much passion you have, he still didn’t do anything during the Revolution. I think I would have responded the same way.

• Jaylin: He’s more passionate than all the other artists we’ve seen interviews with.

Hongtu Zhang

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOcwwLaPVrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr0m204A7j8

• Ingrid: Emotional! He seems connected to his work…When he first came up I thought he was going to be SO BORING (Ageism!!!) He’s a hand talker!

• Michael: He is very affected by what has happened to him.

• Promia: He’s not just describing what happened. He’s living through it. He looked like he was going to cry.

• Abdul: He cares a lot about social inequality.• Adrianna: I thought he’d be younger, based on the pop

art work he does. .it’s easy when you’re older to just stick to what you’re used to.

• .

• .

While Zhang has continued to incorporate his personal and cultural history into his practice, he has further honed a brand of creative mischief, drawing on his studies of traditional Chinese paintings and Western art and art history to weave elements of humor and surprise into his works. The “political pop” works from his Mao Series (1987-ongoing) exemplify this. Referring to the iconic celebrity series by Andy Warhol, Zhang gives us an experience of seeing the image of Mao everywhere around us—from the front of a Quaker Oats canister to his silhouette cut out of burlap. This inundation with Mao’s likeness draws on Zhang’s experience of the Chairman’s absolute power and influence, which permeated the daily lives of Chinese citizens. (Queens museum)

Hongtu Zhang

Guo Xi – Van Gogh1998Oil on Canvas

Various Landscapes by Vincent Van Gogh

Hongtu’s work shows the power that icons and imagery have as they move from culture to culture.

Consider how we influence one another across the globe—whose stories, historical narratives, icons are the most common? How do those icons interact with other historical narratives or stories?

Hongtu Zhang

Kekou Kele – Coca Cola Six Pack2002Porcelain

HONGTU ZHANGMAO, AFTER PICASSO2012ink and oil on rice paper andphoto collage mounted on canvas

Final Thoughts? Hongtu Zhang

• .• .• .

Site Visit to Hongtu Zhang’s Studio in Queens on Monday Dec 18 2:30pm

Final Thoughts? Hongtu Zhang

• Kendell: His work is really meaningful, and he’s trying to oppose things that he thought was wrong. A lot of us don’t really do that. We don’t speak up for things that we think are wrong in society.

• Kellyah: His work is his way of clearing his conscience. • Benz: Depends on the person….Some people DO stand up....but not

me. • Christian: He sees ICONS and expresses them in his work. Chairman

Mao gets remixed over and over again...same with Coca-Cola and Van Gogh. His theme is REMIX.

• Tenz: He’s a great man for knowing the mistakes he has committed. Not everyone can do this. Most people are only concerned for their own well being.

• Yeva: I like that he’s doing this work, to lessen his fear of being in Mao’s shadow.

• Delani: @Kendell, This takes years to stand up for what’s right. They may be afraid in the beginning.

• .

Site Visit to Hongtu Zhang’s Studio in Queens on Monday Dec 18 2:30pm

pointlessness.

Song Dong Breathing

Song Dong

Waste Not

Installation 2005

In his wide-ranging practice, Song Dong explores ideas of memory, impermanence, and the value of human expression within the context of China’s rapidly changing society.

In 2005 he first exhibited Waste Not, an installation showcasing more than 10,000 objects accumulated by his late mother—everything from pots to shoes to toothpaste tubes. The mass of what is essentially garbage is intended to show the small details of a human life and reference the futility of existence, a frequent theme in his performances, installations, videos, and paintings.

Song Dong

Breathing

Photo

1996

These two photographs document Song Dong’s performances in January 1996. He laid down face first on the ground of Tiananmen Square under sub-zero conditions for forty minutes. As he breathed on the ground, a thin layer of ice formed.

When he repeated the act on a small frozen lake in Houhai (near Tiananmen Square), the ice he wished to melt remained unaffected, symbolizing the conflict between the individual and the establishment. Together, the two performances illustrate the artist’s desire to use his body to facilitate a change in the environment, regardless of its minimal impact.

Song Dong

Breathing

Photo

1996

Initial Impressions of this artist’s work….

• .Nita: You can just do things for fun. • Adrianna: Everything we do, even the

pointless things make a difference. Staying up late may affect you later the following day. We don’t need to have massive cultural shifts. Little things make a difference.

• Sarah: We may think there’s no impact, even if we don’t see it in the moment, it’ll still make a difference.

• Dest: Everything we do has a purpose.

• Prince: People fail to realize that everything they do has an impact.

• Danisa: like how half the country doesn’t vote….

Song Dong

Breathing

Photo

1996

Initial Impressions of this artist’s work….

• Tenz: He’s very dedicated to his work. He does his work to show ...a message.

• Tatiana: He’s making a point, even though you may not know the meaning....

• Benz: He’s a dude who cares about what HE thinks of his art...not others.

• .• .

Song Dong Breathing

Song Dong

Stamping Water

Photo of performance in Lhasa River, Tibet 1996

Song Dong

Stamping Water

Photo of performance in Lhasa River, Tibet 1996

Song Dong

Stamping Water

Photo of performance in Lhasa River, Tibet 1996

Song began his career as an oil painter, but in the years after 1989 he increasingly shifted his focus to installation and performance art.

These iconic photographs capture Song’s most famous performance, in which he sat in the Lhasa River in Tibet for an hour repeatedly stamping the water with a large wood seal carved with the Chinese character for water (shui水). The piece is, among other things, a meditationon the evanescence of inscribed language.

As Song has said, “I exerted great force [in stamping the seal on the water], but in the end left no trace.”

pointless.

Sarah: Impact doesn’t have to be VISIBLE.Artan: You can try, but you may never get results.

Zhang Huan

Family Tree

Zhang Huan 1991Family Tree nine color prints

During the 1990s, Zhang Huan’s provocative conceptual performances, which tested his physical and spiritual endurance, established him as one of China’s most celebrated artists. Using his body as his medium, Zhang challenges notions of national and personal identity.

Family Tree is an exploration of culture and selfhood. Zhang hired three calligraphers to inscribe Chinese proverbs, family relations and histories, literary texts, and words deriving from the ancient practice of physiognomy onto his face over the course of several hours. Gradually obscuring Zhang’s discernible features, the calligraphy shifts from legibility into an obliterating mask.

Zhang Huan1997SkinBlack and white photo series

Zhang Huan1997SkinBlack and white photo series

Push the limits of Performance Art.

Push your own limits as well.

Zhang Huan

To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain

1995

Color video

Zhang Huan

To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain

1995

Color video

According to artist assistant Kong Bu:At 1pm on May 11, 1995, land surveyors Jin Kui and Xiong Wen stood on the road below where they set up their measuring equipment. They measured the mountain's height at 86.393 meters. Everyone climbed the mountain, and one by one the artists shed their clothes. The participants divided into four rows by ascending weight and then lay on top of each other in the form of a pyramid. Between 1:26 and 1:38 that afternoon, the surveyors' measurement of the anonymous mountain was 87.393 meters, precisely one meter higher than before…

Every action, no matter how simple or basic makes a difference.

Even if there’s no trace of the action when it is

complete.

<3 -kozak

Notebook Checks begin on Wed 12/13

• All content from Street Art Unit

• All content from Guggenheim Unit