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M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Guan Yi, 2013, © Wu Shanzhuan
Wu Shanzhuan 吳山專
Chinese Cabbage, Three, News, 500g 白菜 三 新聞一斤
1985
This oil painting depicts seven characters painted in white against a red background. The boldface characters read ‘Chinese cabbage’, ‘three’, ‘news’, and ‘jin’ (a Chinese unit of measurement), across the middle of the canvas. The work is one of several text-based pieces Wu Shanzhuan made while he was studying at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. The boldface font is typical of his early works, in which he adapts and merges words and phrases from daily life. At the time, boldface font was used in China only for political slogans or announcements. Here, he replaces the word for ‘cents’ with ‘news’, in a phrase about the price of Chinese cabbage, creating a nonsensical statement. His reliance on red makes reference to the heavy use of the colour during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). By using the tools of political authority, he creates a meaningless composition of words, thereby questioning the value of the political system. Wu was instrumental in founding the Red Humour Group in the mid-1980s, which combined humour and language in a subversive manner.
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