Chinese artist Zhang Dali explores China’s memory hole
In a talk for Shanghai FCC (at OV Gallery in Shanghai) Chinese artist Zhang Dali introduced his long term research work into China’s doctoring of photography for propaganda purposes. As a part of his research Zhang achieved access to archives within the offices of China Pictorial, a semiotic propaganda magazine distributed world wide in numerous languages. This access provided a treasure trove of original doctored photographs, with editors notes, guidelines, and cutting instructions. “The older technicians are now in their 80s, and the younger people there do not pay so much attention to this material, so I got access through some relationships,” Zhang said.
As Zhang explained, many photos were changed many times, and he said it was often difficult to ascertain which is the original image. “ I am an artist, this needs some historian, or political scientist, to study,” Zhang said.
Zhang has documented the painstaking process of changing photos, usually by very fine brush work, to change historical photos into colour, eradicate seemingly non-aesthetic elements, and eliminate political unworthies in the photos. The technicians, working in China’s newspaper and media offices, usually took a week to change one photo. Among the numerous highlights, Zhang has a People’s Daily photo of Mao’s funeral, showing the Gang of Four in the front row of the mourners, and a subsequent photo published a week later, showing the four vanished from the photo. Numerous other political figures vanished from photos during China’s tumultuous purges, notably Peng Dehuai, who was vanished from a photo with Mao, after informing Mao the people were starving to death in the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward. Zhang said he found it very disconcerting people could be vanished from history, but after his initial shock, he began to admire the technicians work, and critiqued some of the sloppier versions, where legs or other elements were not particularly well done, after vanishing a figure in the foreground. The depth of this strange censorship was best illustrated by some China Pictorial photographs, with remote farmers in the distance being eliminated from the picture as China Pictorial could not publish any photos of people with bad class backgrounds, even though they were unrecognizable under broad straw hats.
When asked by the Art Newspaper Shanghai Eye why Chairman’s Mao’s mole on his chin was often not visible in photos, Zhang said that editors often reduced it, “as they thought it was ugly.”
Zhang recently showed these photographs at the Guandong Museum of Art. He said a large part of the audience hadn’t been aware that these well known photos, such as Edgar Snow’s famous portrait of Mao, once visible in every home, had been retouched several times over the decades, making Mao increasingly svelte “and less anxious looking.”
Zhang also pointed out that this changing of photographs to match historical orthodoxy was not unique to China. “Lincoln was short, and in one photograph his head was placed on the torso of a tall general,” he said.
Above are my notes on Zhang Dali’s talk at OV Gallery.
You may remember, OV Gallery was shut not long after this talk , any how it just reopened on June 22nd so if you are interested in seeing this work pop along for a look, but remember not to ask for a catalogue.
I originally wrote this piece for art newspaper, but after the closure the story morphed into a wider censorship story. hmm, artist talking about censorship in the 60s and 70s prompts censorship in 2010.
This show which includes recent photo work by Zhang Dali was closed, and OV Gallery ‘closed indefinitely,’ by authorities.
Nb Zhang Dali showed this work recently in Guandong Museum of Art.
THis has been picked up by a couple of the local English language mags/webzines, That’s here and Shanghaiist here.
And the Wall Street Journal here.
Jun 24th, 2010 | By Chris | shanghaieye
Re-Visioning History
OV Gallery Press Release
May 22-July 17
As Shanghai positions itself as a futuristic metropolis for the occasion of the World Expo, and historical neighborhoods give way to cool reflective glass, there is no better time to ponder the past. Who writes history and how is it constructed, preserved and obscured?
History is the product of a slow accumulation materials: official records, government reports, magazine articles, and various archival photographs and objects which bear the stamp of that era but don’t necessarily reflect any tangible truth. As time goes by, various historians and cultural theorists construct narratives based on these materials which often reflect as much about the era of writing and the identity of the writer as they do about history.
History, however amounts to more than a pile of yellowed pages lying at the back of a filing cabinet – it involves performative acts of remembrance the writing of text books, the publishing of biographies of national heroes, the filming of period war films, the staging of parades and the recycling of era imagery in niche consumer goods.
“Re-visioning History” seeks not to uncover the “true events” of the past, but to look at how history is depicted and consumed. The group show is anchored by the works of Ren Hong and Zhang Dali and also includes propaganda posters and a series of newly-commissioned works, which take the posters as their inspiration.
Ren Hong explores the faulty nature of memory, with historical images typical of propaganda poster imagery – cast in a variety of bright purples, greens and hot pinks. These idealized, dreamlike renderings are then overlaid with an intricate filigree of symbols which reference the filtering nature of time, which selectively twists our understanding of the past.
The show also features Zhang Dali and his Second History project whereby he displays different versions of photographs which were published in various print media throughout Chinese history. Zhang Dali takes a magnifying glass to history displaying the original photographs (painstakingly procured from Chinese archives) alongside versions of the same photographs which have been altered for propaganda purposes. The differences are evident with certain people being erased from the photos, leafy backgrounds being drawn in and slogans painted on to flags and walls.
The show will also feature a number of historical propaganda posters supplied from the collection of Madame Mao’s Dowry with titles such as, “The Age of Decisive Battle,” “Peasant and Army Studying Together,” and “Safeguard the Orderliness of the Revolution: Transportation is Getting a New Look.”
Local artists will produce their own reinterpretation of these posters using either the themes, the visual elements or the graphic styles, to offer their own views on the topic of history. This element of the exhibition is an open competition with prizes for the top three entries, and the works of all participating artists will be shown in the gallery in a digital slide show.
Short Description for Listings
Re-Visioning History
Zhang Dali, Ren Hong and a selection of local artists examine how history is constructed, distorted and consumed. Ren Hong takes historical imagery and overlays it with intricate patterns. Zhang Dali makes comparisons between original historical photographs and altered versions of those photographs published in magazines. Finally a group of local artists create newly commissioned works based on a selection of political posters culled from the past half century of history.
Shaoxing Lu's OV Gallery became the first art space to be completely shut down by the Culture Bureau since 2000 on Friday, thanks to an apparently controversial exhibition about "re-visioning history
The other headline artist, Zhang Dali, in a project entitled ‘Second History,’ has taken versions of photographs which were published in various print media throughout Chinese history, including the Cultural Revolution, and placed them alongside versions of the same photographs, which have been altered for propaganda purposes. Cult Rev art is nothing new. In fact, it's rather old hat. The Chinese are especially bored by it, even if we Westerners are not. But that did not stop the Culture Bureau seizing Zhang’s catalogs from OV. They also confiscated a print of one of the foreign artists, Shanghai-based Ben Houge, who uses video to capture the layering, erasing and re-construction of history.
wall street journal archive:
dialogue: the graffiti art of 18K by Lyn Stuart
zhang dali: beijing commune
Chinese Propaganda Uncensored by ILARIA MARIA SALA
Photo Tampering Throughout History
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