Mai Dang Lao (McDonald's)
2002
Zhang Hongtu
Chinese, born 1943
Asian Art
In Mai Dang Lao (McDonald’s), a hamburger box, fries container, fork, and knife are cast in bronze and adorned with traditional Chinese motifs like the taotie mask, typically featured on ancient ritual bronze vessels used in worship of the ancestors. Here it is combined with the iconic logo of the fast-food giant, transforming the “Happy Meal” into a Shang-dynasty artifact. The Asian American artist Zhang Hongtu, a leader of the Political Pop movement in contemporary Chinese art, lives in Queens, New York, after emigrating from China in the 1980s. By creatively juxtaposing ancient China with contemporary America, and ritual art with consumer culture, Zhang whimsically critiques systems of power.
- Maker/Artist
- Zhang Hongtu
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Formatted Medium
- Cast Bronze
- Dimensions
- box of fries: 7 1/4 × 4 3/4 × 2 1/4 in. (18.4 × 12.1 × 5.7 cm) hamburger box closed: 3 1/2 × 4 5/8 × 4 3/4 in. (8.9 × 11.7 × 12.1 cm) fork: 1 × 3/4 × 6 3/16 in. (2.5 × 1.9 × 15.7 cm) knife: 5/8 × 1/8 × 5 13/16 in. (1.6 × 0.3 × 14.8 cm)
- Departments
- Asian Art
- Accession Number
- 2014.82a-d
- Credit Line
- Gift of the artist
- Exhibitions
- Arts of China
- Rights Statement
- © artist or artist's estate
- Museum Location
- Asian Galleries, West, 2nd floor (China)
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