MISSMAO

LONDON/BEIJING JULY/SEPTEMBER 2006

Curated by Helen Marshall, Fei Fei Lu & David Goldenberg

PRESS PREVIEW AT: http://www.missmao.co.uk

“ Pinocchio was a persistent liar and in Mao's time it was told that the communist party was the mother of all people.”

MISSMAO celebrates the inauguration and opening of Blacklist Projects with a unique and diverse international collaboration. The exhibition marks the beginning of a new dialogue and debate between artists and curators examining modes and myths in an information driven age.The catalyst for the show, the Gao Brothers’ ‘Small Silver Idol’, is seen here for the first time outside China. ‘Small Silver Idol’ is one of a series of red, silver, goId and white idols originally made in mud before being cast in fibreglass, and ranges in size from 2-20 feet high. Prior to its journey to Europe, it was shrouded in sack-cloth to avoid confiscation during police inspections. In fact, until 2003 the Gao Brothers themselves were on a government blacklist and unable to leave China. In recent years, Gao Zhen, 50, and Gao Qiang, 44, both from Shandong Province, are part of a new wave of Chinese artists showing at an international level. Due to censorship laws in contemporary China, and as a response to cultural sensitivities, MISSMAO will change her clothes when she tours to Beijing in September 2006. Updates will be posted regularly on http://www.missmao.co.uk
For more information please contact Helen Marshall & Fei Fei Lu: mail@helenmarshall.co.uk tel: 07795518724

LONDON SHOW:

Blacklist Projects
100 Blurton Road
London E5 0NH
Open 6pm Friday 14th July
throughout till 10pm Sunday 16th July
PV 6pm Friday 14th July

BEIJING SHOW:

The Gao Brothers Studio,
No.4, Jiuxianqiao Road
Chaoyang District Beijing
P.0 Box 8503 Beijing 100015 China
September 17th through
to September 30th
PV 6pm Thursday 16th September

The Gao Brothers (China)
Helen Marshall (UK) & Fei Fei Lu (China)
D.A.P Digital Art Projects UK
David Goldenberg ( UK )
Completely Naked /Pau Ros ( UK )
C.CRED (UK) & BASEKAMP (USA)
Anabela Zigova (USA/Slovakia)
Lizzie Hughes (UK)
Neil Stewart ( UK )
Stephen Connolly ( UK )
Elizabeth McAlpine (UK)
Michael Wright (UK)
FREEE (UK)
Peter Fillingham (UK)
Charlotte Moth (UK)
Michelle Deignan ( UK )
Simon Hyde ( UK )
Sam Jury ( UK )
Robert Steele ( UK )

“ A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan (March 1927), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 28.* The text here is verbatim from the second edition of "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung", printed in Peking in 1967

SMALL SILVER IDOL. THE GAO BROTHERS