The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented color photograph centering a left hand with light skin tone from the wrist up against a crimson background. The hand, missing the pinky finger, holds in its palm a rectangular, black-and-white, closely cropped photograph about the size of a postage stamp depicting the face of Mao Zedong, a man with medium light skin tone wearing a rimmed cap. The hand's fingers, pressed together, curve slightly up.

My Left Hand (with Young Mao)

2004

Qi Sheng

(Chinese, b. 1965)
China, 21st century
chromogenic print
Framed: 99.1 x 68.6 cm (39 x 27 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2012.102
© Qi Sheng
Location: Not on view

Description

In 1989, a pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square was brutally quashed by government forces, followed by suppression of avant-garde art activities and exhibitions. Performance artist Qi Sheng chose self-imposed exile when he could not continue making his art. Before leaving, he cut off the little finger of his left hand. He buried it in a flowerpot so that when his body went to Europe, his soul would remain rooted in China. Returning after ten years away, he photographed that hand cradling tiny portraits. This image of Mao Zedong suggests the origins of the political forces that led him to such a desperate act. “I am not only an artist,” said Qi, “I am an observer and recorder of history.”
  • Unknown, probably purchased through a gallery; Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg; Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 02, March/April 2013 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 15 archive.org
  • Refocusing Photography: China at the Millenium. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 8-November 16, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=My Left Hand (with Young Mao)|url=false|author=Qi Sheng|year=2004|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.102