NARRATOR:
Titled Chain, this wooden sculpture was made by Wang Keping in 1979. It is fifty-three centimetres tall, thirty-seven centimetres wide, and about thirteen centimetres thick. The height and width of the sculpture roughly correspond to the dimensions of an adult torso.
The sculpture is a relatively abstract representation of a human head. The face is turned to the left, with a hand wrapped around the mouth and lower jaw. The head tilts backward and the eyes are wide open. An interlocking chain coils around its straight neck.
The form of the sculpture also resembles intertwined hands. Imagine clenching your left hand into a fist, palm facing forward away from you. Then imagine placing the palm of your right hand against the palm of your left, and wrap your four fingers around to the front, covering your wrist and part of the back of your hand, which faces you. The covered area corresponds to the sculpture’s mouth and jaw, while the exposed knuckle of your left little finger represents the sculpture’s nose. Just below the index and middle fingers of your left hand is a large, carved, olive -shaped eye. The wrist of the left hand is the sculpture’s neck, which is engraved with a chain.
The sculpture is dark brown with a smooth wood grain that has a pattern resembling undulating mountains. The curvature of the eye, and the outlines of the hand, fingers, and fingernails, are intricately carved into the wood. In contrast, the chain around the neck is slightly raised, like a bas-relief.
