Vive le Travail

#06004     142 X 198 cm     oc     2006

Under the impressive silhouettes of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) and the Tiantan (the Temple of Heaven), stands a gigantic sculpture of three laboring peasants; one in red, one in white, and another in blue. Underneath them and on the side of the stands are engraved in Chinese: Long Live Those who Labor!

Imaginatively, a large sculpture such as this one based on Jean-Francois Millet’s Gleaners would be very much at home, on Tiananmen Plaza, the vastest square in the world; as well as an appropriate symbol for China, a socialist state where labor is regarded as such a virtue.

Vive le Travail!