FENG Mengbo (???) (Born 1966)

Born in Beijing in 1966, the first of year of the Cultural Revolution, Feng Mengbo studied at Design Department of Beijing School of Arts and Crafts and later graduated from the Printmaking Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1991. As an avid video-gamer, Feng Mengbo’s works involve heavily manipulating the modern computer technology.

In the early nineties, Feng Mengbo created a series of computer-generated paintings which include grafting Mao Zedong’s symbolic hand waving image onto a picture of yellow taxi. During this period, Mao Zedong is a recurring theme in his works. Starting from 1996, Feng Mengbo has shifted his major interest into interactive art that commonly uses CD-ROMs as media. In his first interative CD-ROM, My Private Life, a collection of photos mixing personal experience with memorable historical events are presented to the viewers on a screen, and the viewers can change the order of the appearance of the photos through mouse and keyboard. Another of his works, Taking Mt. Doom by Strategy, links the high-tech game aesthetics of the West and the traditional staging of the Beijing opera to explore the history and meaning of the Cultural Revolution in China. It is based on a mixing of the video game Doom with the opera Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy from the Cultural Revolution era and includes 42 clips from the film of the same title.

Credit: On the Future of the Present: 
Art, Technology, and Popular Culture

By Curtis L. Carter (www.mengbo.com)