Artwork Description
Hung Liu – Deep South
Dimensions: 41 x 41″
Year: 2020
Medium: mixed media on panel
Hung Liu’s Deep South image is inspired by her own painting after a Dorothea Lange Dust Bowl-era photograph. Liu saw herself in American images for the first time, when she experienced Dorothea Lange’s images of American migrants and workers. Like Liu, these people had to leave their homes in search of a better life. Also like Liu, who was forced to work in the Chinese countryside during the Cultural Revolution, women like the woman featured in this image were made to dedicate at least a portion of their lives to serving the dictates of others. Liu says of her paintings of these American migrants: “we can adopt each other’s children, and I think we should be able to adopt each other’s ancestors, as well.”