The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

East Village No. 20

East Village No. 20

1993–1995
(Chinese, b. 1968)
China
gelatin silver print (printed 2005)
Image: 38.4 x 55 cm (15 1/8 x 21 5/8 in.)
Purchased with funds from an anonymous donor 2018.19
© Rong Rong
Location: not on view

Description

Rong Rong’s image imbues Zhang Huan with stoic calm as he performs 12 Square Meters. Zhang spent an hour sitting naked, covered with honey, soy sauce, and flies in the filthiest latrine in Beijing’s East Village on a 100-degree day. The performance comments on the deplorable local sanitary conditions, the sufferings of the poor in China, and the political situation in that country in the 1990s.
  • Rong Rong (the artist)
    Karen Smith, Beijing, China
    2005
    Larry Warsh, New York, NY
    Scott Howard, Hartsdale, NY
    February 26, 2018
    the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Wu Hung, Rong Rong’s East Village 1993-1998, Introduction by Christopher W. Mao, New York: Chambers Fine Art, 2003 18, 61-62, 70-75
    Wu Hung, RongRong &inri: Tui-Transfiguration, China: Timezone 8, 2004 114-115, 117, 125
    Wu Hung, Transcience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, Chicago: The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art The University of Chicago, 1999 102, 107, 114-117
    Albertini, Claudia. Avatars and Antiheroes: A Guide to Contemporary Chinese Artists. New York: Kodansha America, 2008. 88
    Hooton, Keiko S., and Tony Godfrey. Contemporary Photography in Asia. Munich: Prestel, 2013. 122-123
    Roberts, Claire. Photography and China. 2013. 160-161
  • {{cite web|title=East Village No. 20|url=false|author=Rong Rong|year=1993–1995|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.19