Since the introduction of his Parents series in 1989, Mao Xuhui has shifted the focus of his art from individualism to social consciousness of traditional Chinese society. The concept of "Parents" by no means represents its specific, concrete namesake but touches upon a facet of primitive Chinese culture, thoughtfully delving into the special position and authority of parents in the feudal Chinese society throughout the past millenniums. Since then, the artist has taken on "power" as his core concept. Within a decade, Mao has made his way from the Parents Series to the Scissors Series. The "Daily Epic" Series created in the period from 1994 to 1996 serves a linkage between the preceding and the entailing; it could be more accurately described as a crucial point in Mao's artistic path. Daily Epic, Weekend (Lot 1044) is a masterpiece showcased in this Evening Sale which allows us to catch a glimpse of the artist's thread of thoughts and stylistic change at that time.
Mao suggests that the notion of "epic" is actually a kind of description, compliment, concern and commentary on daily life. In Daily Epic, Weekend, Mao portrays a view in a room which reveals his attention to private life, in stark contrast with the emphasis on power in his previous "Parents" Series. The armchair sitting quietly in the common room differs sharply from the seat of power in the family shrine. Drawing the focus back to individual life, the imagery of scattered objects implies an accidental intrusion by the audience. The fragments of life in weekends reiterate the artist's sense of existence as a private identity. The oblique lines pointing in different directions lay out the background of the painting, the alternate use of gray and white and powerful brushstrokes create the sense of claustrophobic tension in an enclosed space, crystallizing the artist's reflection on the noise and turbulence as a result of the relentless construction of cement buildings in an ever-developing city. On the wall hangs a portrait of a couple in a square frame. The diamond shape of heads and trunks in simplification is a recurring symbol which has appeared in a series of his family portraits created in the late eighties, when Mao attempted to project the affection for his daughter whom he missed dearly and his deep thoughts on marriage after his divorce into his paintings. The portrait of a couple in the room of an apparently solitary man discloses the artist's yearning for family love. According to sociologist Michel de Certeau, people would express their connection with their living environment, and their psychological and symbolic needs of space through materials. The seemingly commonplace objects in the painting are in fact, the visual history of Mao's life experience, not only encompassing his emotions and memories, but also the track record of his artist's path, and an implication of his resistance to the external world and his ardent quest for internal emotions.
While Mao repeatedly observed and mused on commonplace objects, he was at the same time inspired by the German artist Joseph Beuys, who named his creation and concept as "the social sculpture", in attempt to change a historic fact - that art had so far, failed to directly involve in social revolutions, by viewing the whole entity of society, politics and life itself as the media of sculpture making. Mao has experimented on this concept through the depiction of the chair, cigarette, tea cup and wine bottle in Daily Epic, Weekend.. These materials are tangible objects which can be exchanged, distributed and accumulated, suggesting the breakdown of power from the hierarchy of the society into small but profound parts in everyday life. As Foucault has put it, "The omnipresence of power: not because it has the privilege of consolidating everything under its invincible unity, but because it is produced from one moment to the next, at every point, or rather in every relation from one point to another. Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything but because it comes from everywhere." On the surface, Mao seems to be the creator of the room in Daily Epic, Weekend in which his still-life is deliberately arranged to appear in the scene. And yet, these lifeless objects themselves play an indispensable role in our daily life, and therefore possess the ultimate power which controls human beings driven by primitive instincts and desires. Mao has further elaborated his view on the multiple relationships of "power" through the depiction of interdependence between human beings and commonplace objects in his daily epic.
Mao has embarked his journey from history to contemporary life, and from public realms to private space, marked by his transition from the Parents Series, in which he declares his resistance to external power and feudalism in traditional Chinese society, to the Daily Epic series, which symbolizes his self-realization of the reality and the present. His struggle against the authority shown in the Parents Series, and his personal involvement in the later Daily Epic Series to illustrate the complication of power in multiple relationships, are eventually wrapped up by his own manifestation of power in his Scissor Series. The artist has done a thorough investigation into the nature of power, gradually exposing the shift of his psychological states from the others, the objects and back to the self. Daily Epic, Weekend is therefore, a testimony to the shift of power in his creating process.