They series no 6, (They recorded for the future, 32)
(1988)
Medium
cibachrome photograph
Measurements
(41.5 × 60.0 cm) (each sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters of Asian Art and NGV Foundation, 2021
© Courtesy of the artist
Gallery location
Asian Art - Chinese Gallery
Level 1, NGV International
About this work
Hai Bo examines the mass social transition from the idealism of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) to the pragmatism of everyday life in China during the 1990s. The artist uses studio portraits made during the Cultural Revolution and juxtaposes them with portraits of the same sitters photographed around the end of the twentieth century. Expressing this period of sweeping social change that touched the lives of more than one billion Chinese people, Hai Bo charts the aging process and the inexorable march of time.