Trauma
Maker and role
Artist: Hung Liu, American, born China, 1948-2021
Year
1989
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Object detail
Media/Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
overall, 80 x 128in (203.2 x 325.1cm)
Credit line
Gift of Ed Downe
Accession number
2015.167
Object type
Department
Location
Further information
In 1989, while living in San Diego, California, Hung Liu watched news coverage on the attack of unarmed students in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. In this painting, also completed in 1989, red outlines of Beijing’s Forbidden City are overlaid on acupuncture point diagrams to suggest physical pain imposed on the body. Liu’s Chinese passport photo establishes her as the emblem of a history of trauma, while the uniformed soldier from a Cultural Revolution-era propaganda opera, symbolizes the government’s history of control.
Documentation
Art in America; Jun 1990; p. 182-83
Hung Liu: The Year of the Dog; Hung Liu (American, b.1948, d.2021); 1994
Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Liu; 2013; p. 28-29; fig. 8
Hung Liu: The Year of the Dog; Hung Liu (American, b.1948, d.2021); 1994
Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Liu; 2013; p. 28-29; fig. 8
Subject period
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