PHOTO:Andres Serrano-An American Perspective

Although Andres Serrano has endured challenge, intense criticism, censorship, and the destruction of his work, his work has always followed closely the universal topics of our times, including religion, race, violence, and sex. In 1987 his work “Piss Christ” was protested by American conservatives, including Republican Senators from New York, touching off a debate between liberals and conservatives regarding the work. Also “History of Sex” (1995-1996) was damaged by enraged Neo-Nazis in Sweden in 2007.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Red Brick Art Museum Archive

Andres Serrano’s first solo exhibition in China, entitled “An American Perspective” is on presentation at Red Brick Art Museum. The exhibition presents 53 works of photography and video from 16 of his major series, the artist’s most recent series “Made in China” and also “Piss Christ” (1987), Serrano’s most famous and controversial work, which depicts a crucifix submerged in urine. “Made in China”, created this summer during the artist’s residency at Red Brick Art Museum. Serrano is Red Brick Art Museum’s first artist in residence and this was the artist’s first trip to China. Through the subject of Chinese marriages, he wanted to reflect the diversity of the state of China. He made a public call for recently-married couples, single men and women, and divorced people of different ages and social backgrounds who participated in a work on Chinese marriage. The participants wore formal attire and appeared in dramatic pictures, which explore marriage, love, relationships, and the deficiencies in these concepts and institutions. “Made in China” (2017) is Serrano’s most recent work, echoing “Budapest” (1994), America (2001), and “Cuba” (2012). A portrait of current U.S. president Donald Trump, shot in 2004, is just one of the works included in Serrano’s “America” series. The artist began work on the series after 9/11, taking portraits of 115 Americans, including firemen that went through 9/11. “I started with symbols of 9/11, then I photographed professionals like doctors, surgeons, cowboy, and teachers. I photographed the rich, the poor, the known, and the unknown, from an Ukranian mother and child on welfare to Anna Nicole Smith and Snoop Dogg. You might say the Donald Trump I photographed in 2004 was different than the man we saw in 2016, but then as now, he still represents America and the American Dream”. Also presented at this exhibition, his series “Objects of Desire” (1992) is a series of close-up photographs of guns, simultaneously images of violent weapons, cool refinement, or intense danger, which reflect on the social issue of gun ownership and collecting. “Torture” (2015) presents still-life images of Medieval instruments of torture and the hooded men, which focuses the viewer on people who were oppressed or ostracized during that time. In “Immersions” (1987-1990) and “Bodily Fluids” (1987-1990), provocative substances such as urine, milk, blood, and semen are presented in formalist, dreamy images.

Info: Curator: Yan Shijie, Assistant Curator: Sun Wenjie, Red Brick Art Museum, Shunbai Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, Duration: 7/11/17-25/2/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:30, www.redbrickartmuseum.com