Hong Hao

Page 3085, The New World Political Map

Selected Scripture is a series of silkscreen prints that Hong Hao has been working on since the 1980s. The series includes 37 prints to date, each of which resemble pages of an ancient open cartography book. In this series, the artist reflects on the authoritative influence of ancient books that shape dominant understandings of the world. The artist states that he specifically chose the book format because of the authority the form commands, as the highly controlled production of scientific publications is a signifier of accuracy and truth. In The New World Political Map, the artist shifts the geographic locations of developing and developed countries, while also creating several fake countries with the name of big corporations, as a metaphor for the worldwide capitalistic turn after 1989 and its alternative histories. This world map, reinvented by the artist, calls attention to a particular understanding of the global order, and reshapes conventional perspectives of the world. The work invites viewers to question the relationship between knowledge and truth, and its effects on cognition.