Liu Xiaodong

This painting by Liu Xiaodong, one of China's foremost contemporary artists, is coming up for grabs in Sotheby's Hong Kong Evening Sale on 5 October. Curious about Disobeying the Rules (1996) I watched Sotheby's video on the painting (CLICK). The voiceover is spoken in Chinese, but there are subtitles in English. The subject combines two photos: one of migrant workers in a truck going to work, the second a truckload of pigs being driven to an abattoir. Liu Xiaodong thought the migrant workers had as much control over their destiny as the pigs for slaughter. The painting expresses his social concern.