(born in Yinchuan, Ningxia Province, China, in 1960)
Wig No. 19b, signed, dated Mao T. Q. 2005.7.28 and signed again in Chinese, oil on canvas, 200 x 250 cm, on stretcher, (PP)

Provenance:
Galerie Suppan Contemporary, Vienna
Private Collection, Austria

Exhibition:
Vienna, Mao Tongqiang, From Flourish to Fall, Galerie Suppan Contemporary, June/July 2005, [...]

In the “wigs” series Mao Tongqiang interprets the theme of the wig as a painterly metaphor for the provocation of illusory identities by the cosmetics industry. The current motif was introduced in 1999 to the international art debate as a transnational symbol on the issue of cultural identity by Kutlugˇ Ataman in his video, “Women who wear wigs”. Themes of vulnerability, identity and loss of speech are clearly discernible in the ephemeral brilliance of the artificial hair motif from Mao’s series. The strangely androgynous heads appear isolated in a surreal, melancholic atmosphere as rare, exotic flowers. The wigs depicted develop a subtle life of their own through the artificiality of their dazzling, luminous colours and excessive painterly gestures, which contrast with the symmetry and the tranquillity of the smooth faces. The mode of representation appears as artificial and contradictory as the personality of the wig wearers, by means of which Mao Tongqiang depicts the issue of artistic appropriation as a genuine issue of contemporary art in China. [...]
© Galerie Suppan Contemporary Vienna