MA LUMING

In the early 1990’s, despite the strict Chinese government control and its rigid social tone, Ma Liuming founded an avant-garde experiment art community called the “Bejing East Village” with his fellow artist friends that include well renown Zhang Huan and Zhu Ming. Ma Liuming caught the international audience’s attention through his performances of poetry about nudity and freedom of the body in such stiff times in China. In the 2000’s, Ma Liuming returned to paint, which was his main concentration before he started to perform. He recreated a particular moment from his performance records that were from 10 years ago. Through the process of reconstructing the tenth of a second of the performance, he questioned the nature of the subject who most likely have changed externally and as well as internally. Also, Ma Liuming has developed his performance identity ‘Fen-Ma Liuming’ through new media of paintings and sculptures. Past and present, man and woman, baby and adult: he juxtaposes contradicting characters of subjects in his artworks.