Art From Her Roots

Performance artist and painter May Sun has relatives high in the Chinese government. That did not stop her parents from taking their children and their “vacation” visas and fleeing to Hong Kong when the artist was 2. “We came to the U.S. from Hong Kong when I was 16,” she says. “I matured in both cultures, and I can finally say I’m equally comfortable in both.”

Sun first returned to China in 1985. “It was a wonderful, uplifting experience. In small, serene towns willows covered the landscape. In Beijing, youngsters and old grannies really did gather in parks to do Tai Chi and you could stroll through the city safely at any time of night.”

After her return Sun did several performance pieces dealing with China--”The Great Wall: How Red Is My China?” and most recently, “L.A. River, Chinatown,” an impressive history of the Chinese in Los Angeles recounted like a haunting verse and staged in tents.

Her trip also inspired such graphic works as a double portrait of Chairman Mao and Colonel Sanders called “Democracy: It’s Finger Lickin Good.” “Kentucky Fried Chicken was the first fast food in China and the place was built directly across the street from Mao’s tomb. I was struck by the idea of Mao watching all this develop.”

Any ironic humor found in China’s opening cultural doors turned to horror as those doors slammed shut.

“I felt very sad, like something hopeful was snatched away,” she says. Her Chairman Mao-Colonel Sanders piece is on view through Jan. 15 on a bulletin board at Ventura Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in Van Nuys, one of three bulletin boards by artists put up by Patrick Media Group and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.

“I reworked the old portraits of Mao and Colonel Sanders by adding hand-colored Newsweek photos of cheering demonstrators framed in blood red paint. As I changed the pieces, Chairman Mao began looking more and more sinister.”