The elephant (and donkey) in the room

“Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art”
Where and when
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago. 5550 S Greenwood Ave, 773-702-0200, smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. Oct 2–Jan 25, 2009.
What it is
Four Chinese artists consider the upheaval caused by the dam, which has flooded more than 1,000 villages and (officially) displaced 1.13 million people from their homes. The dam is supposed to generate cleaner energy than coal, but environmentalists aren’t convinced it won’t cause water pollution. Chen Qiulin, Yun-fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong and Zhuang Hui address Three Gorges’ 21st-century problems using traditional media such as ink painting as well as photography and performance.
Candidate connections
Like Obama, this exhibition’s curator—respected art historian Wu Hung—earned a graduate degree from Harvard and has taught at the University of Chicago. Sure, Hung has never been an Illinois senator, but their similarities must be more than coincidence.

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