Yeni Mao
66 1/8 x 9 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.
Further images
The cast bronze tongue hangs pierced though like in a butcher’s shop on a nickel-plated steel support. These sculptures, featuring cow's tongues, which carry a culinary motif with deep transcultural significance, serve as the central focal point inspiring this entire body of work within the exhibition. Due to his marginalised status in society as a queer and Asian in America, Mao has been drawn to subversive and countercultural movements during his youth. In this hanging piece made of bronze and nickel-plated steel, the religious appearance is infused with its inspiration from the 1980s body modification movement, which offered an alternative spiritual path through the transformation of the physical body. This visceral connection takes on an extraordinary dimension through the sculptures' larger-than-life and unconventional presentation, igniting a a series of sensations, including repulsion, attraction and abjection, which emerges as the viewers realise a shared connection with these body parts, rooted in our primal, animalistic nature. This realisation extends further as we trace the line of transference, allowing the disembodied cow to transcend its literal form and symbolise not only any body but also mythical beings like lions and dragons.
The cast bronze tongue hangs pierced though like in a butcher’s shop on a nickel-plated steel support. These sculptures, featuring cow's tongues, which carry a culinary motif with deep transcultural significance, serve as the central focal point inspiring this entire body of work within the exhibition. Due to his marginalised status in society as a queer and Asian in America, Mao has been drawn to subversive and countercultural movements during his youth. In this hanging piece made of bronze and nickel-plated steel, the religious appearance is infused with its inspiration from the 1980s body modification movement, which offered an alternative spiritual path through the transformation of the physical body. This visceral connection takes on an extraordinary dimension through the sculptures' larger-than-life and unconventional presentation, igniting a a series of sensations, including repulsion, attraction and abjection, which emerges as the viewers realise a shared connection with these body parts, rooted in our primal, animalistic nature. This realisation extends further as we trace the line of transference, allowing the disembodied cow to transcend its literal form and symbolise not only any body but also mythical beings like lions and dragons.
