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Chinese artists who are not endorsed by the ruling communist party often find they need to work outside the country, especially if their art is critical of the government in Beijing. Sculptor Weiming Chen is among them . Genia Dulot went to the California desert to see what he is doing.
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((PLAYBOOK SLUG: CHINA ART / CALIFORNIA DESERT
HEADLINE: Chinese Dissident Artist Creates Sculpture Park in California Desert
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: 07/18/2023 at 10:30am
BYLINE: Genia Dulot
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Yermo, California
VIDEOGRAPHER: Genia Dulot
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Stearns, Jepsen
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO _X_
TRT: 3:31
VID APPROVED BY: mia
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: Mandarin sound bites in the clear))
((INTRO:))
[[Chinese artists who are not endorsed by the ruling communist party often find they need to work outside the country, especially if their art is critical of the government in Beijing. Sculptor Weiming Chen is among them . Genia Dulot went to the California desert to see what he is doing. ]]
((NARRATOR))
Sculptor Weiming Chen’s “64” or June 4th marks the moment that he says changed his art forever with the suppression of Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
((Weiming Chen, Sculptor))
“This time my wife was still in China, in Tiananmen, so I’m very worried about her. We didn’t get any information from her, and I see the tank through the people’s body, people already leaving, students, they still come with them, through the dead body.”
((NARRATOR))
Then in New Zealand, Chen says he gave up sculpting fountains and took to unrelenting political art. He came to the United States in 2017 and was part of a group that purchased land here in the California desert to make the “Liberty Sculpture Park.”
“CCP Virus II” depicts President Xi Jinping’s head as an outsized coronavirus molecule. It is the second version of his critique of the Chinese government’s role in the pandemic after the first was destroyed by people who he says were working for Beijing.
The U.S. Justice Department charged two men with conspiring “to destroy the artwork of a dissident artist whose work is critical of the (Chinese) government.” China’s foreign ministry said those charges were an “unwarranted denigration and smearing” of the country.
Quen Yan volunteers at the sculpture park.
((Quen Yan, Liberty Sculpture Park Volunteer))
“It is important for the world to know the Chinese government is not only hurting the Chinese but hurting the people of the entire world.”
((NARRATOR))
Tourist Nicholas Jones stopped at the park on his way home from Las Vegas.
((Nicholas Jones, Park Visitor))
“The sculpture, I think, is very powerful. The imagery, what’s behind it, I think it’s very powerful. If you try to do this over there, you’d probably be in the front of a firing squad, but I think it’s a great exhibit. People should learn from it.”
((NARRATOR))
Chen’s latest work is “Chained Woman Sculpture,” dedicated to a woman who was found two years ago chained by her neck to a wall in a rural Chinese village where she had been forced to give birth to eight children.
((Weiming Chen, Sculptor))
“The chained woman, the background is China. China like a big jail. The steel windows, jail windows. The base is a Chinese map. The top is like a Chinese flag. In the whole of China, so many women are in this situation, and this is blood.”
((NARRATOR))
Chen says the Liberty Sculpture Park is not limited to art about China, and he welcomes other artists to express here their ideas about human rights and democracy.
((Genia Dulot, for VOA News, Yermo, California))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateJuly 18, 2023 10:29 EDT
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
