The image of Chairman Mao has become one of the most ubiquitous images in contemporary art. By grafting the image of Mao Zedong into old historical photographs, Shi Xinning fabricates scenes of pseudo-reality in black and white and establishes his role as a playful interventionist in re-writing history and historical memory. Rather than the implacable official visage hanging over the Tiananmen Gate, Mao appears as a lively statesman. Dressed in formal communist attire in Casino (Lot 1310), Mao seems fascinated and clearly enjoying his time accompanied by an attractive blond bombshell, who could be an actress, model or a Playboy Mansion playmate like those that appeared in many of Shi's Las Vegas-themed paintings of the same period. Mao appears charmed as the lady leans in flirtatiously and beckons for more ambitious gambling at the table. Whether Shi's intent is irony, comedy, or historical lament is unclear, however, his insertion of an improbable image of Mao underlines the frivolity and pomp of Western popular culture and political showboating, and reminds us of how historical memory can be easily replaced and distorted by new images fit for new socio-political circumstances.

By 2004, Shi began delving into motifs of war, violence and their consequences through montages of famous war photographs and images of political diplomacy. Based on Robert Capa's controversial staged image of a falling soldier, Sacrifice 2005.9 (Lot 1311) at once questions the inherent power of photography in creating authentic reality, and comments on the contrived actions of the exuberant revolutionary opera actress inserted within this scene of falsity. Shi paints in a grand historical scale but deliberately minimizes any painterly effects, mimicking instead the crude print quality of black and white newspaper photography. His images bordering fantasy and reality continue to render constructed veracity to challenge our existing perceptions of the relationship between mass-circulated images and truth.