Ma Liuming- same same but different

More than any other artist I'm going to talk about on this blog (to date), Ma Liuming, is an artist that I am struggling with the most. I will be the first to admit that I don't know enough about him. But I've spent time researching, sitting and pondering, and reflecting on how he seems so intimately foreign to me.

The nitty gritty details-

Born in 1968 in Huangshi, Hubei, Ma graduated from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in Oil Painting in 1991. He has been identified as an artist, sculptor, and performance artist. After he graduated, he moved to Beijing to be a part of an artist commune, the East Village.

His work is layered and dense with more discoveries to unpack with each viewing of his work. Issues/concepts/thoughts that come up when I reflect on Liuming's work include: gender, masculinity, queerness, communism, resistance, colonization, reclamation/appropriation.

During the 1990's, Ma created several performance pieces that were all connected by a constant practice and style of presenting himself.

The first is Fen Ma Liuming, his alter ego that came into existence in 1993. Fen Ma pushed the boundary of gender identity where Ma painted his face in with full make up with long flowing hair- quite convincingly representing a female face, while he remained unmodified and naked from the neck down as a man.

Methodology:

Fen Ma Liuming would perform what I would refer to as pedestrian action in the nude. He would then document his work via photos which have been displayed across the globe.

In one piece of photo documentation- he is shown taking a shower (nude as most people do) while surrounded by live fish that were hung from wires. This piece was titled Fish Child.

One of his earlier pieces was frying a fish- naked in the courtyard of his communal home.

Perhaps one of his more popular pieces is walking nude along the Great Wall of China. Fen Ma walked along the Great Wall of China out of protest, resistance, and challenging the cultural/political beliefs and norms.

Let's actually break this down. Walking nude represented a taboo, challenging modesty, policies on public nudity, and showing the vulnerability of the human body against a national monument. The Republic of China does not present itself as an exceptionally liberal country, and conservatism and modesty is a priority. Asian-American Artist, Ming Yuen S. Ma in a public letter to Fen Ma Liuming, acutely described seeing the piece as a striking image of Ma Liuming's "feminized body against the rough masonry." Being slender in build with the feminine make up... with exception of his flat chest, and genitals... the image opens up a lot of discussion around gender and masculinity.

What this does mean to me? Part of my interest in Queer-Asian Identity as a... phenomena and exploring ways to express my evolution within that subculture- I have often wrestled with my own masculinity. On many of my attempts to pursue "professional" acting, or in scene study classes, etc. there is/was continual feedback on ways to help me "butch up", play straight (heterosexual), and or more masculine.

Something quite interesting here- when I put on an Asian accent- usually, Cantonese-Chinese as opposed to Vietnamese or Mandarin-Chinese, much of the feminized or queer traits that are often associated with me are lost. On a functional level, perhaps its my need to drastically slow down my speech, or how focused my actions become to help communicate with a difficult accent, or the register in which I place my voice- putting on an accent to "act" completely changes how I am seen.
On another level, I am curious and question perhaps if it is simply the mask that I brighten, and therefore takes more attention than my queer one.

The Great Wall of China represents a global symbol, but in itself communicates segregation, division, protectionism, and is built on a history of struggle, labor, and oppression of the masses. So what does it mean to walk along this divide? What is Ma Liuming questioning? Or demanding?

Deeper Questions/Thoughts

Ma Liumings works were documented, some in color, but a vast majority of this series of works were produced as black and white photographs. What I found interesting is how it has been framed. Consistently, there is a shallow amount of information about the works online, though they are often connected to various art galleries and distributors. There is a heavy sense of monetary value to these artworks. These prints range in value from 2000-33000 British Pounds.

Ma's work is minimalistic- especially his performance art pieces. With the exception of the make up, and some small props, often times it is his naked body acting in space. The work is as much conceptual as it is visually striking. I wonder if it is my own limited gaze, or limited exposure in North America, that the image of a nude Asian man in the media seems so rare, and thus unexpected. With the exception of 1-2 films, there really isn't a presence of the Asian Male body in mainstream media. So does this scarcity increase the perceived value of his work?

Intimately Foreign

Ma Liuming has travelled the world, but resides in a city and country where the vast majority of his neighbours look like him. They share the same skin color, hair color, size, tastes, and exposed to the same elements.

Ma Liuming and I share the same ethnic descent. Yet I am surrounded by different images, and live in a community of people where no one looks like me. I just realized that right now in Regina... I don't have any substantial Asian male friends. I wonder how much that matters.

In the queer community- I exist within a deficit because of differing ideals of beauty and attraction, my skin color immediately stratifies me at a lower level then pretty much anyone who is taller/whiter than me.

In Ma's work, as referenced on ArtSpeakChina, he thinks of his make up and body as the performance and "more of a symbol than a mask" for me, I verbalize my body, my queerness, and performance as all masks that communicate symbols.

I am still struggling with his work, and this post, and will do so for a while I imagine. I guess I am just taken by how familiar his art and his presence feels to me.

I'm perhaps not articulating it, but within his images- there is a deep sense of social familiarity. I can feel my parents and grandparents viewing his art, and through that imagination, I can feel them viewing me work. Despite having never visited the Great Wall, or seen his work live, I feel connected to him.