The Monument of One Hundred Thousand Whys |
The Cover: The Monument of One Thousand Hundred Whys
Elva Lai Charcoal and inkjet on archival paper 144 x 100 cm Framing: Thin black aluminium frame with glass; acid free mounting |
The series <The Monument of One Thousand Hundred Whys> also investigates the idea of memory image. In the work, cleaning utensils, cutters and tapes were used to tear off and leave marks on photographs of a Chinese classic children book series,The Monument of One Thousand Hundred Whys.
In 1961, the publisher Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House issued the first Chinese version of “One Hundred Thousand Whys” (“Shi Wan Ge Wei Shen Me”), and up to now it has been published for over 100 million volumes. In 1990s, the Chinese version of “Shi Wan Ge Wei Shen Me” costs 42.30 yuen for 4 volumes. The late Soviet Union writer Mikhail Il’in (Михаил Ильин) has titled his book “One Hundred Thousand Whys” and quoted a famous poem from an English poet, Rudyard Kipling, in the title page: Пять тысяч Где, Cемь тысяч Как, Сто тысяч Почему! “Where are the five thousand? Seven thousand how to do? One hundred thousand why?” , where one hundred thousand means “a myriad of”. |