Wash Your Hands in a Golden Basin

Piece Description:

Text: Dai Guangyu

The artist, dressed in a suit with hands and face painted white, holds in his mouth a sharp knife (covered with ketchup and resembling blood). He emerges from a space and goes to a prepared table (with a white tablecloth, a golden basin on top, a chopping board, a white towel in the shape of a square, and a bar of soap). Then the act of “hand washing” begins…

Text: Zhong Ting

Through this work, the artist wishes to reflect on war and massacre. Suits and facial whitening are common in Dai Guangyu’s works, as he criticizes the alienation of human beings caused by political, cultural, and social systems through white clothing and facial-whiteness that signify as upper and middle class. The act of “washing hands in a golden basin” is a metaphor for the desire for return to one’s spiritual home.