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On the impact of globalisation on Chinese art and culture, consumerism and cultural exchange…

The famous koan, ‘one hand clapping’, says the Guggenheim, is a metaphor for how meaning is destabilised in a globalised world.

“A true polymath: an art historian with a doctorate from Yale, she has composed operas and ballets, made films, incorporated her knowledge of science and engineering into her artworks, and recently started a school for young artists and activists in Beijing.”

“On the top floor is the astonishing ‘At Fifty, I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven’. Fifty identical dolls with porcelain heads intended to represent Song himself, and referencing a favourite childhood toy, are engaged in every activity imaginable: reading, cooking, eating, driving, peeing and sleeping, even lying face down in a playful reference to Song Dong’s 1996 performance, ‘Breathing, Tiananmen Square’…”

Dong Yuan loves Da Vinci and Duchamp equally. In these works, we see the results of such an apparently unlikely juxtaposition: Dada’s love of the absurd and playful meets the beauty and virtuoso technique of the old master.