Mao's Silhouette 2000

Yu Youhan painted “Mao’s Silhouette” with paint on canvas, and it feels like a kind of conversation, or maybe a collision. It’s as if the ghost of Chairman Mao's profile is emerging amidst a sea of dainty floral patterns, creating this weird mix of power and, like, domesticity. I can only imagine Yu Youhan’s state of mind as he was making it. Was he thinking about Pop Art, about Warhol’s repetition, but with a Chinese twist? Or was he diving deep into personal memory, layering cultural critique with the sweetness of floral wallpaper from his childhood? Look at how the texture of the paint creates a surface that's both soft and a bit unsettling, like a faded memory. I’m particularly drawn to the way those floral patterns fill the silhouette, each tiny blossom a whisper of something suppressed, or maybe celebrated. It's paintings like these that make me remember we’re all just remixing and sampling each other’s ideas, trying to make sense of the world in our own messy, beautiful ways.