Double vision: the art of Hun Liu.

In today's culturally diverse society, the work of many contemporary artists reflects a kind of "double vision," a unique view of the world as seen through the lens of personal experience in more than one culture. Bicultural artists are aware of at least two cultures and express this dual perspective in their work. Attributes often found in the work of such artists may include deliberate and acknowledged appropriation from other artists or styles, the use of confrontation, satire, humor, or an increased emphasis on meaningful content. Understanding the context in which a work was created becomes necessary to fully experience the work and appreciate the intention of the artist.

Searching for Contextual Clues in an Artwork: Bunny Dance

Let's investigate Bunny Dance. Start by looking very carefully at the work and asking questions. What do you see? (A large, long and narrow canvas with four evenly spaced arches across the top, two panels that seem to form a diptych, four different views of young Asian, red-cheeked children dancing in rabbit costumes.)

What questions come to mind from this first look? Are there four different children or could the figures represent different views of the same child? Could they be painted this way to portray motion? Does the large size of the painting affect how you react to the image? Do the colors promote a particular emotional response? Does the shape of the painting remind you of anything? Asking such questions makes us curious to know more about the artist.

Hung Liu grew up in China at a time when foreigners were often taken to primary schools to watch children perform. Did that experience prompt this painting? Does Bunny Dance present a frozen moment of childhood innocence, perhaps to suggest a childhood lost or longingly desired? Liu painted this seemingly sweet work and others depicting mythic childhood after returning from a visit to China.

Now living in the United States, she bases much of her work upon historical photographs. Many of her works reflect the shapes of old stereo photographs--arched-top, double photographs, mounted close together on a card.

A Statement for A Generation

Possible meanings develop as we continue to explore Liu's visual vocabulary. In China, the rabbit (or hare) is considered to be the luckiest of all Chinese cosmological signs, symbolizing talent, wisdom, affection, and peace. The rabbit is also the symbol of the moon and the protector of early morning. White is also the color of mourning in China.

This painting is based on a photograph of kindergarten children from a book and reflects the artist's memory of similar, staged performances. She recalls "I was like one of the bunny dancers--never conscious of how much I was programmed. I was also thinking about the political pressures put on little children. When I was young and we would put on a performance, there was always a lot of makeup. Our cheeks were rouged so that we looked very strong, very healthy, very red. We called them apple cheeks. But if you overdo, it's not healthy any more--it looks like something is wrong--like your face is burning up with a high fever."

Liu concluded: "This painting is really a symbol of mourning for my childhood and for the childhood of my generation. Maybe also mourning for my parents and parents of others of my generation, for the loss of love, loss of a family connection." Trinkett Clark observes in an exhibition brochure "The arches in Bunny Dance recall those found in some of the Buddhist cave temples... along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that connected the East with the West. To Liu, the niches resemble cells, while the dancers are like prisoners in bunny uniforms, serving their country in blissful oblivion. The niches also function as sanctuaries in which one can offer memorials."

Picturing History from a Bicultural, Feminist Perspective

Freed from Chinese-mandated prescriptions since her immigration to the United States, Lius work reflects socio-political issues of bicultural identity, displacement, marginality, feminism, sexism, and racism. Liu says she arrived in the United States with a "five-thousand-year-old culture on my back, late twentieth-century world in my face."

Speaking of the changes in her work after moving to the United States, Liu said, "I shifted my artwork from socialist realism, the style in which I'd been trained, to social realism. It transformed my personal identity crisis to a crisis of cultural collision." One critic wrote "her work suggests that revolution and tradition, as well as personal and cultural identity, are interwoven in the tapestry of an individual's life."

Concerns about Chinese American cultural stereotypes generated by movies and photographs and experiences of Chinese immigration are filtered through the often ironic lens of Liu's bicultural and feminist perspective. Liu has said of her bicultural experience, "As an escapee from propaganda art in China, I looked toward the ancient artists of my culture and traveled extensively among the ancient monuments. Here, however, the reproduction of traditional work is seen as academic and unimaginative--unless one selects iconography from the past and inserts it, collage-like, into the present... Consequently, I have become interested in the peculiar ironies which result when ancient Chinese images are reprocessed: within contemporary western materials, processes, and modes of display.

"All in all, I am trying to invent a way of allowing myself to practice as a Chinese artist outside of Chinese culture. Perhaps the displaced meanings of that practice--reframed within this culture--are meaningful because they are displaced."

Hung Liu, Art Education, and Multicultural Perspectives

The visual imagery of Liu and other contemporary artists with bicultural viewpoints offers promising means for the inclusion of meaningful, multicultural perspectives in art education. Hung Liu, as an artist with an insightful, bicultural point of view, provides an exemplary model to encourage teachers to start challenging stereotypes and addressing diverse but equally valid multicultural perspectives. Who are some other artists who depict bicultural perspectives in their work? Think of artists in at least: three different bicultural groups.

EDITOR'S NOTE: See the April 1996 issue of SchoolArts for two more articles on Hung Liu.

References/Resources

The Art of Hung Liu: Bicultural Identity in a Postmodern World. Web site: http://www.art.unt.edu/ntieva/artcurr/japan/hlui.htm

Clark, Trinkett. Hung Liu, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, (Parameters exhibition brochure), 1994.

Lippard, Lucy. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a New York: Pantheon Press, 1990.

Roth, Moira. Interactions and Collisions: Reflections on the Art of Hung Liu (exhibition brochure), 1992.

A Window into the Past, A Short History of the Stereo Photograph. Web site: http://gateway.eastend.com.au/history/More.html

RELATED ARTICLE: Questions to Consider

1. Why do you think historical photographs are so important to Hung Liu? How does she use them in her paintings.?

2. How is our understanding of the artwork enhanced by what we have learned about the artist and her intentions? Is this knowledge necessary for us to fully appreciate the work? Why or why not?

RELATED ARTICLE: More About the Artist

Liu was born on February 7, 1948, in Changchun, China, a year before the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 closed universities and sent students, including Liu, to be "re-educated" by working in the fields for four years. Following this experience, Liu attended the Beijing Teachers College and later taught at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing (formerly called Peking). The only artwork acceptable in China at the time was the state-mandated Communist version of Socialist Realism, so Liu had no choice but to conform in what she taught and what she painted.

Liu immigrated to the United States in 1984 to attend graduate school at the University of California at San Diego. Upon graduation she taught for several years in Texas and began exhibiting her work around the country, especially in San Francisco and New York City. Liu is currently on the faculty of Mills College in Oakland, California.

RELATED ARTICLE: Suggested Activities

Elementary: Depicting Special Occasions from Photographs

Encourage students to discuss and create a class list of special. times or occasions they remember--birthdays, holidays, vacations, or other memorable events in their lives. Have students create simple, mixed-media collages that depict these meaningful experiences. Suggest that students bring appropriate personal photographs from home, then make photocopies of the photos for students to use in their collages.

Middle School: Creating Visual and Written Narratives of the Same Event

Ask students to bring in a childhood photograph that represents a significant event in his or her life. Have each student create a narrative painting that includes the image shown in the chosen photograph. In addition, encourage students to develop a written narrative to display alongside the completed paintings.

High School: Appropriating Contemporary Images in Artworks

Have students search in magazines and newspapers for visual examples of the use of children or minorities to manipulate the reader or viewer (for example, photographs of poor, unkempt children in charity solicitations). Display the images and discuss the ethical issues raised by such use. Discuss the use of appropriation by artists, then have students create paintings, collages, or drawings that address social, political, or ethical issues, using the photographs as source material.

Nancy Walkup is the Project Coordinator at North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. E-mail: [e-mail]