Author Description

A November 2001 account in the "New York Metro" states, "The staff at the Tribeca Grand Hotel got a shock recently when a man drove up and unloaded a ten-foot-high fiberglass statue of a Mao Tse-tung jacket on the street in front of the lobby entrance. The "gift" came courtesy of Tribeca gallery owner Ethan Cohen, who specializes in avant-garde Chinese artists. When hotel staff told him the statue--Sui Jianguo's "The Legacy Mantle"--had to go, Cohen insisted he had gotten prior approval from the promotions department.... Though tourists seemed to enjoy taking their picture with the artwork, the hotel rounded up five of its doormen and had them carry it back to Cohen's gallery, about a block away." Witty, incisive, and often humourous, Sui Jianguo's sculptures raise many questions about contemporary Chinese life. His large-scale pieces--like the impressive red-resined dinosaurs with a "Made in China" logo engraved on their chests--are made to be seen not only by his homeland audience in urban public spaces once dominated by propaganda, but also by an international audience eager to better understand China's ever-evolving social, political, and artistic climate. This publication covers the entire body of Jianguo's work.