Illustration:
ill. 5.61 (set: 5.58)
Author:
Zhang Hongtu (1943-) 张宏图
Date:
1995
Genre:
installation, video
Material:
mixed material
Source:
Zhang Hongtu, Mao, 1995, (DACHS 2008 Zhang Hongtu), http://www.momao.com/, Heidelberg catalogue entry
Courtesy:
Zhang Hongtu
Keywords:
Mao Zedong, omnipresence, private live, living room, propaganda art, contemporary Chinese artists

Zhang Hongtu: Front Door (No 1) ((Zhang Hongtu: Menhu (No 1) 张宏图: 门户 (No 1))

Mao’s presence was not just public but private, too, as reflected in popular propaganda materials since the 1950s, many of which show the Mao portrait in the living room and in familiar situations (ill. 5.58). This presence is continually negotiated in contemporary artworks suggesting that even after his death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, Mao continues to “haunt” private homes as visible in a 1995 mixed media installation by Zhang Hongtu: behind the innocent-looking doors can be made out (and heard, through a door knocking sound) Big Brother Mao, watching you as he peers through the peephole of your door (Look who is knocking).