Ren Si Hong

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About the artwork

Ren Si Hong's sculptures have an absurdist quality to them and tend to depict Mao Zedong in various comical positions, in a manner that is obvious caricature. In this work Mao is shown to have an exaggerated head, likely a reference to his inordinate amount of power and influence during his reign. Yet Mao is rendered naked, placing him in a state of vulnerability with his intimate areas exposed, an unexpected depiction of a political figure. Ren’s satirical expressions of Mao is a form of exorcism of that past, a means to secularise a god, and he sculpts with boldness of idea and thought.

About the artist

Ren Sihong (born in 1967) graduated from the Fine Art Department of Hebei Normal College in 1991. From 1991 to 1993, he studied in the Teaching Assistant Program for the Oil Painting Class in Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1993, his solo exhibition was held in the Central Academy's gallery. He now works as a professional painter. Ren's work can be classified as Political Pop, in which the great leader is presented in such a lighthearted and humorous way that the distance between the untouchable, glorified giant and our realistic experience vanishes. In the sculpture ensemble, Mao leads the children of the consumer society in carrying out the broadcast exercise. He turns the uniformity of the exercise movement into free and idle self-entertaining behavior which brings a post-ideological linguistic feature to politics and sports.