Weng Contemporary

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Armed Forces-Yue Minjun-1

Yue Minjun's work revolves around his characteristic grinning self-image - a repeated motif throughout his oeuvre. The figures, all based on a generic self-portrait, are each rendered with an inane beaming smile - a cynical grimace that represents the artist's resignation and disdain towards the materialism and spiritual emptiness of contemporary mainland Chinese culture. "Armed Forces" is without doubt one of the most important works in which Yue Minjun uses his laughing self-image as a recurring motif. A group of men clad in identical uniform each wears different headgear. Every man is thus assigned his own distinct role. So the placing of various hats on the figures in this artwork is about highlighting the role of the hat in asserting and reinforcing social differentials, and my sense of the absurdity of the ideas that govern the sociopolitical protocol surrounding hats.

“ It made me think about the origin of hats, and how the symbolism of “the hat” evolved. Why was it that this particular accessory became the sign of a job, a social position? Or stranger still, how a hat could signify nationality, or an ethnic group. „

Yue Minjun