Resume: MAO Xu Hui

This resume is scripted in Chinese. (Jerry Wu\u2723).https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhoudocs/1182/thumbnail.jp

厦门综改区社会管理创新的实践及其特色

创新社会管理是厦门全面实施综合配套改革试验的重要内容。本文探索厦门实施综合配套改革试验区在基层社区治理、基层公共服务、社会志愿参与、社会组织管理、涉台事务治理等五大领域的创新实践,总结其创新经验及特色。作者认为厦门综合配套改革试验区已经初步探索出一条以民生优先、协同治理、制度创新、技术支撑为特征的社会管理创新之路,逐步形成政府与其它社会主体协同创新的社会管理新模式。厦门大学985工程公共管理重点学科建设项目; 福建省2012年度社科规划重点项目“推进厦门综合配套改革试验区社会管理体制创新研究”(项目编号:2012A015

Quotidian Epic · Back Chair 日常史诗·靠背椅

Upon a disordered, yet mesmerizing background painted with white and grey straight splashes, numerous objects are rendered: a black hanging lamp enters but exits the picture frame by the top-left corner; a large, white back chair is placed under the lamp, facing us; besides the chair, placed presumably on floor (the totalizing background does not allow us to read the environment), are a few beer bottles, a bag of cigarette, and a cup; above the sundries hangs a picture, potentially figural, but the subjects are difficult to recognize given Mao\u27s economical production of them. Black and grey are two dominating colors across the canvas. Their dominance marks the painting a sense of desolation, depression, and loneliness. Adding to the sense is the vacant seat -- no one has appeared in the picture; yet the beers and cigarettes announce human presence. It is the presence marker of beers and cigarettes that emphasizes the absence pointed out by the seat, and thus highlights the loneliness by contrast. What could the loneliness infiltrating the painting be felt about? What, ultimately, inspired Mao to write out the pressing solitude? Curator of one of Mao\u27s exhibitions Stefanie Chow (Zhou) tells us it might be power. Power, Zhou says, may produced the loneliness Mao was eager to map out in the work. (Zhou, 权力的意象, 2018, Mann Art, Available on http://www.maanart.com/index.php/Home/Article/detail/id/78) (Jerry Wu\u2723).https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1183/thumbnail.jp

Scissors and Sofa (3) 剪刀和沙发之三

In the background of the work stages a visceral-red sofa frontally. The sofa is depicted with almost minimal details; we can only recognize its volume by a few crudely applied shadows and crumples on the sofa\u27s body. Above the sofa, a relatively small framed picture hangs on the wall. The picture registers a number of geometric forms (some rhombus and triangles) without further viable identifications. In the painting\u27s foreground, a tremendous scissors stands opened. Its metal texture is told by the reflective finish painted with white and bitumen. The connection between the giant scissors and its background is obscure. The scissors may play a vehicle for Mao\u27s feelings transpired in real life (symbolism played by the quotidian objects); may the emotions be confusion, fury, and melancholia triggered by the swift social changes occurred in the late 90s\u27 China. (Zhu, 剪刃-毛旭辉2005年个展 -- 毛旭辉的剪刀情结, May 10, 2005, available on http://www.tcgnordica.com/2005/cutting-edge/) (Jerry Wu\u2723).https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1177/thumbnail.jp

Scissors and Apartment · A Cold Day 剪刀和小区楼房·寒冷的天

Looming in the picture\u27s background is a multi-storied apartment, built with grey cements and maroon bricks. The estate name of the building ZongShuYing 棕树营 is denoted on a wall by the right of the apartment. A Cold Day -- the weather of the setting is suggested by the work\u27s title, and we can trace evidence of the chill by the fog blocks on the building\u27 windows (an effect of condensation caused by the temperature difference of the interior and exterior). Superimposed before the building is a pair of disproportionately giant scissors, in color of silver or white. The scissors seems to suspend in the mid-air right in front of the apartment. The pointed head of the scissors is directed upward to the sky to the picture\u27s margin; its directing is answered by a few converging, almost radiant stokes painted in the sky, as if the sky is abruptly disturbed by the pointed intruder . The connection between the giant, floating scissors and its background is obscure. The scissors may play a vehicle for Mao\u27s feelings transpired in real life (symbolism played by his apartment); may the emotions be confusion, fury, and melancholia triggered by the swift social changes occurred in the late 90s\u27 China. (Zhu, 剪刃-毛旭辉2005年个展 -- 毛旭辉的剪刀情结, May 10, 2005, available on http://www.tcgnordica.com/2005/cutting-edge/) (Jerry Wu\u2723).https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1175/thumbnail.jp

Key and Back Chair 钥匙和靠背椅

This work resembles much to Mao\u27s another oil painting Key and Red Back Chair (see the artwork another entry of this archive). Like the difference told in the two works\u27 title, the central subject, back chair, is painted in tonal color rather than red in this artwork. The enormous key accompanying the chair is painted in a dark grey tone, much close to bitumen. At the work\u27s top-left corner, a hanging lamp protrudes into the picture plane. We are not sure under which setting do these objects appear. The background of the image is erased by a few abrupt white splashes. The detached nature of the subjects, along with the inconsistent scales and proportions of them, render the artwork rather abstract than concrete or realistic. All the objects depicted, indeed, could play into Mao\u27s witting allusions to the notion of power, and honestly register Mao\u27s entwined feeling to power . Mao once commented on power: it (power) fears me, but at the same time I pity it [...] it is born out of darkness, [...], sits on a back chair, irremovable, [...], and ineluctable. (Texts translated from Chinese) The tonal colors of grey and black that dominate the picture, as well as the heavily viscous facture, would help Mao to render an imagery of pressing power. (Zhou, 毛旭辉的“时间复调”—反复吟唱的热爱, 2018, Mann Art, available on http://www.maanart.com/index.php/Home/Article/detail/id/78) (Jerry Wu\u2723).https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1181/thumbnail.jp

Quotidian Epic · Bicycle 日常史诗·自行车

The majority of the canvas is occupied by a bicycle painted in red. The bicycle forms the picture\u27s diagonal, extending from the bottom-right end to the top-left corner. Beside several key components of the bike are outlined in black, the rest of its body is painted in scarlet-to-maroon red. The bicycle\u27s spokes (the thin metal rods connecting the tires\u27 rim and hub) are painted indistinctly: some parts of the spokes are visible while others are not; as if Mao wished to capture the bike in rolling motion, rather than a parked stasis. At the bicycle\u27s back, the artist used white, grey, and black colors to construct a chaotic, illegible, nebulous, and arguably, abstract background. Bicycle being as one of the most common means of transportation in the 90s\u27 China, Mao\u27s choice of subject announces him as a contemporary artist, attending closely to the social changes and streams. The moving bicycle absent of any passenger may convey Mao\u27s sense of loneliness, especially within the contemporaneous art circle. (Han, 毛旭辉 1976-2007, published by Han Ya Xuan （汉雅轩）, 2007, p.206); see also (Mao, 道路 毛旭辉的绘画历程 1973-2007, Shanghai People\u27s Fine Arts Publisher 上海人民美术出版社, 2008, p.237). (Jerry Wu\u2723).https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1185/thumbnail.jp