The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

Patrice Lumumba were portrayed. 122 These projects sought to understand the cultural
production of national memory and heroic biography.
Mao: From Icon to Irony set out to examine the earlier and continued fascination with
Mao’s life, as reflected in objects and products. It showed how in photographic
portraits, woven silk pictures, images on plaques, paintings on T‐shirts and
lithographed commemorative stamps, Mao was turned into a leader through
representations intended to convey qualities of “mature, trustworthy, wise
statesmanship”. 123 The exhibition also showed how Mao was converted into a deity
through idol sculptures, standing figurines, heroic pictures and protective car
talismans. With his image transferred on to badges, stamps, vases, desk plaques, mugs
and other household crockery, Mao was turned into a symbol. Mao was also depicted
as teacher through quotations from writings and speeches transposed on to porcelain
cups in calligraphy. Later, Mao was later repositioned and marketed as a brand
through the proliferation of his image on memorabilia in the form of pens, pendants,
clocks, watches and key rings. Finally, the Fashioning Mao exhibition showed how Mao
became an icon of vogue and style, with his image transferred onto dresses shirts,
camisoles and jackets, and with the Mao suit turned into a fashion statement. 124
From Icon to Irony also historicised Mao’s image‐production, and suggested that it was
during the Cultural Revolution that Mao had “attained the status of a personality cult”
and that his popularity had “reached its zenith”. At that time, almost every literate
Chinese person carried a copy of Mao’s “Little Red Book”, Quotations from Chairman
Mao. Through posters, book covers, domestic and outdoor sculptures, badges and
woven silk pictures, “images of the Great Leader could be seen everywhere”.
122 A Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art (Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries, Atlanta, 20
January – 15 March 2002, curated by Bogumil Jewsiewicki); see also the accompanying catalogue by
Bogumil Jewsiewicki et al, A Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art (New York: The Museum
for African Art, 1999. This exhibition was first shown at the Museum for African Art, New York in
1999.
123 Mao: From Icon to Irony, exhibition text.
124 Mao: From Icon to Irony and Fashioning Mao (Victoria and Albert Museum, London October 13,
1999 ‐ April 23, 2000).
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