HONG HAO (1965 –). 洪浩

Selected Scriptures, page 1965, The King of Medicaments, Vol. 1,

Silkscreen (edition 43/60),

56 x 78cm.

Executed in 1992.

One of Hong Hao’s most important works, Selected Scriptures is a series of thirty-seven prints encompassing maps, martial strategy, sacred cave temples, and the human body. Conceived to imitate pages from a traditional woodblock-printed book, the work imagines a new ‘encyclopaedia’ to create order in an ever-changing word. Hong’s images resemble ancient classics, but are filled with intentional errors and misrepresentations offering humour and commentary on the contemporary world. The series was included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York exhibition, Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, 2013-14.