My+Things+No.+6+--+Hong+Hao


 * //My Things No. 6//**: //**The Hangover of Revolution in my Home**//

Artist: Hong Hao Country of Origin: China Date: 2002 Size: 119.5x209.5 cm Medium: Digital Photography
 * Artwork Identification**


 * Introduction**

Contemporary artist Hong Hao was born in Beijing, China, 1965. He currently lives and works in Beijing and is a graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Hong Hao creates art to make personal connections to his own life as well as historical connections to his Chinese culture. In the digital photograph collage //My Things No. 6//, Hao displays a wide collection of items from the cultural revolution. His use of technology and cultural history produces a powerful composition on many different levels.


 * Descriptive Analysis**

In My Things No. 6, Hong Hao presents us with a visual inventory of political propaganda from the cultural revolution. The composition is littered with scanned images rearranged to express the meaning of what took place during 20th century China. Between the images black areas of negative space separate each individual piece of propaganda with overlapping occurring sporadically throughout. At a distance the digital photographic collage works texturally with its inclusion of a variety of materials. The red color of Mao’s communist China dominates Hao’s personal collection of items. Looking within the collage an arrangement of books, open, closed, standing and flat, are scattered throughout. Among these books are various copies of //Mao’s Talks at Yan’an Forum on// //Literature and Art//. A centrally located book that is opened depicts a map of China showing the eastern region, including Beijing and Shanghai. Other books are opened to readings or illustrations connecting them to the cultural revolution. In addition to the books and illustrations are flyers with propaganda images often found on posters that were spread throughout the country for the masses to read. The illustrations depict the characteristics commonly found among the art of this period as set forth by Jiang Qing. Some examples of these characteristics can be found in the open book to bottom, just to the right of the middle. On this page a soldier stands tall in a monumental way with the presence of red surrounding him. Other important components of this piece are the arrangements of Mao badges grouped together and spread out to decorate the composition. The Mao badges represent the loyalty to the Communist party of by the Chinese who once wore them.


 * Formal Analysis**

Through //My Things// No. 6, Hong Hao is showing his viewers how past history and culture are an important part of China today. Like his collection of personal items from the present seen in his previous collages in this series, Hao presents to us objects relating to consumerism in contemporary Chinese life. The series continues after //My Things// No. 6 with collages of book keeping in the pieces titled //My Things – Book Keeping of 06//, 2006. The Book Keeping collages comment on the great progress made through education and the growing Chinese economy since the time of Mao.

It is important to note that Hao graduated with a degree in printmaking, from the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, the year of the Tienanmen protests (Leffingwell 1). He is known to play on the Duchampion theme of the nature of books, and the concept that knowledge is power (1). My Things No. 6 includes many iconic images from the Cultural Revolution. Hao includes copies of Mao's Red book, which was a staple item to own during the Cultural Revolution. In fact, the Red Book almost served as a form of legitimacy papers to show that you were a supporter of Chairman Mao's Communism. There are a lot of images of propaganda posters, supporting farming and industry. There is a prophylactics package, a film box, and a Chinese/English business card for the Gagosian gallery. Also included in the photo are many copies of Chinese style comic books, called lianhuan hua. Lianhuan hua means "linked pictures", they are a combination of pictures and text that usually portray tales of heroes. After the People's Republic of China was founded they became a very popular form of government propaganda to help establish new policies and regulations. However, in the year 1966 when the Cultural Revolution began, their popularity faltered. Today, these comic books have become pricey collectibles. Hao included them in this photo to show that as a result of the Cultural Revolution, intelligent and productive artistic items like the lianhuan hua were banned; that there was a loss of knowledge during this period that truly debilitated the nation.

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 * [[image:http://www.chinesecontemporary.com/images/hong_hao/hong_hao_5.jpg width="340" height="192" align="middle" caption="My Things No. 1, 2001-2002" link="http://www.chinesecontemporary.com/hong_hao_cv.htm"]]

The collages share similar characteristics in how they are made and presented. All of the compositions are individually scanned and rearranged to make a meaningful statement. The found objects in the compositions often overlap and are separated from on another with black areas of negative space, thus treating all the materials with the same weight of meaning. Each piece in the series not only has specific references and meaning, but they relate to each other to express what it means to be Chinese.

In conclusion, My Things No. 6 provides a historical glimpse into the ever important part of Chinese history, the cultural revolution. The collection of materials in this piece is riddled with meaning from the time they were popular and influenced roles among the people in China to the present time of how the Chinese live their life today in the post Mao era.


 * References**

Printed Sources:

Boyi, Feng, Christoph Heinrich, and Pi Li. __Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection__ : Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2005.

Dexin, Gu, Zhu Fadong, and Jin Feng. __Too Much Flavor__ : Chambers Fine Art/New Art Media LTD; Bilingual ed., 2003.

Online Sources:

Artnet. __Hong Hao__. 1 Mar. 2009 [].

Art Realization. __Hong Hao__. 1 Mar. 2009 [].

Art Scene China. __Hong Hao__. 1 Mar. 2009 [].

Base Gallery. __Hong Hao Exhibition__. 1 Mar. 2009 [].

Chinese Contemporary. __Hang Hao__. 1 Mar. 2009 [].

Pekin Fine Arts. __Hong Hao__. 1 Mar. 2009 .

Leffingwell, E. (2004). Art in America. Retrieved March 28, 2009. Website: []

Literature in Line: Lianhuanhua Pictures stories from China. (2007). Retrieved March 28, 2009, from Shanghai People's Art Press. Web site: []

Lianhuanhua Pictures Storybook. (2006). Retrieved March 28, 2009, from Streetprint Engine. Web site: []

ArtE343/543 2010 (NIU ASSURE Model Instructional Plan) Title: Hong Hao and Voice Thread Name: John Cheney and Misty Leman


 * **__A __****nalyze Learners ** ||
 * Learners for this lesson will be the students in ARTE 343. Students will be at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students in this class are somewhat well versed in technology and have basic to advanced levels off knowledge on art history. Some of the learning styles that are present in this class include visual as well as auditory learners. Students are given instructions often on a projector screen and then mimic actions to complete an assignment. ||
 * **__S __****tate Objectives ** ||
 * Students will be able to understand more about the visual artist Hong Hao and will be able to think critically about his artwork.

Students will effectively use voice thread to analyze Hong Hao’s artwork. || __Voice Thread __ __Lecture style presentation __ || Including important aspect such as more information about artist. Talk about artists personal background an=d add some text about artists beliefs about artwork Teachers will post images of artist and documents to create a slide show presentation for students about Hong Hao. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Using different techniques of voice thread teachers will present info about Hong Hao || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Students will discuss ||
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">S __****<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">elect Media, Materials, and Methods ** ||
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Digital images from online sources __
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">U __****<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">tilize Media, Materials, and Methods ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Teachers will present material about Hong Hao to class using voice thread
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">R __****<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">equire Learner Participation (activities, tasks, steps…) ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Students will follow along with teachers using voice thread to view information and to interact with the voice thread website.
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">E __****<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">valuate & Revise (evaluation, critical reflection, and revision plan) ** ||
 * I felt that the lesson went really well. I think that it was a really good way to introduce a Web 2.0 media to the class and I fell that the other students enjoyed the lesson. If I were to change anything I would maybe practice more with voice thread. There were some technical difficulties that I wish we could overcome. I thought that maybe having the students do more than just commenting on a slide might be more helpful. Maybe creating their own slideshow would be cool. John Cheney

There were some issues with working with the phone message I left. I thought it would correlate better. We will have to try out this again to see if we can not make it auto play. We could have a better example on our actual PowerPoint presentation on how to draw on our images. I think incorporating some kind of video in our artist presentation would have helped in student’s acknowledgement. Otherwise Voice Thread seemed pretty user friendly. ~Misty Leman

I thought this lesson went pretty well. I liked the use of the Voice Thread and I think it would be helpful in art education. I think it could be a neat way to comment on art, maybe by setting up student art on a site and have other students and relative make comments on the art either textually or verbally. It seems relatively easy to learn and use. However, I didn't feel it really helped me analyze the artists work, it just allowed me to make comments on his work. I mean we could look at the image closer, but I would have liked to see some text and more background info on the artists so I could understand his art style and philosophy. - Rick Reed || I really liked the idea of using your phone to leave comments on the slides. I think this is a good way to incorporate several technologies into the learning process. I would like if there was more capabilities beyond leaving comments such as video components as well. I would like to combine this site with Prezi because I think the voice commenting and interesting slide presentations would go well together. Maybe in the future the creators will add more to the presentation. I'm glad we were able to see a new way of presenting the information! Sara Rigdon _ I thought there was generally good organization of thoughts regarding the student demographic). Clear objectives but the second one is a little bit general I felt. How else can voice thread work in an educational environment? I was also curious if you need a microphone or any other special equipment? I felt both the instructor and the assistant did an excellent job showing the Web 2.0 tool in a very enthusiastic manner and interesting approach. I would have maybe like to learn more about the functionality of voice thread in other ways. The instructor was very informative about the artist and they tied the artist into the presentation much more than most other groups. I feel that there may have been other opportunities to create more student participation by having them spend a little more time actually creating various voice threads. I know time was short though. Overall I thought John and Misty did an excellent job! Michael Toner _﻿I thaught the lesson went well. I really liked the idea of using a voice thread to make comments on art, and giving options as far as how and what you would like to say about a piece of art. I agree that it would be a creative and useful way to comment on and critique professional artist's as well as student work in the art classroom. I appreciated how the presenters had discussion about the background of the artist they were presenting and many images to help describe his ideas and his unique style of work. - Beth Stepnoski