Fighting The Flood : Red Flag Canal Wang Jin

Wang Jin is an artist who seeks to express in his main projects his deepest thoughts on the current social reality in China. Drawing his inspiration from tradition, he believes that contemporary art is inextricably linked to social order and is wary of attempts to rationalize its noblest meaning. The color red, an international synonym for the country, is at the heart of his work.

In his 1994 performance Fighting the Flood: Red Flag Canal, Wang Jin collected 25 kilos of red mineral powder from a dry bottom layer of the Red Flag Canal in Lin County, Hebei Province, to cover a large area of the river. The pigment gradually dissolves to form a 3,000-meter long current entering the Taihang Mountains. Wang Jin describes this work as "arterial bleeding allowing the blood to flow and healing to take place" in a perspective of positive evolution of Chinese society which he currently considers "sick".