The Virtuous Being

Hao Liang Chinese

Not on view

This work is a complex and layered homage to the history of literati gardens. The scroll begins by reimagining the most famous garden painting in Chinese history, Wang Wei’s (699–759) Wangchuan Villa, as a series of ghostly ruins. Slowly, the scroll transitions to color from black and white. The painting then shifts to an exploration of the Ming-dynasty garden of the scholar Wang Shizhen, in Taicang, Jiangsu. From there, Hao takes the viewer on a journey to the present day, where Wang’s garden, which was destroyed in the twentieth century, has been rebuilt. The new garden features a garish Ferris wheel, which Hao shows spinning off its axis and spewing its cars across the scroll, across boundaries of space and time.

The Virtuous Being, Hao Liang (Chinese, born 1983), Handscroll; ink and color on silk, plus research materials of mixed media, China

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