Who is this?

[Deleted]

Seen on a driveway, just east of condor rd, north side of valley center in Newberry Springs. 20ft tall




Not quite finished. Who is the dude and why is this art on a driveway in a remote villages in the Mojave?

johnjsgems

[aDave]

@shotgunner, To me, it looks like Vladimir Lenin.

Dave

[rockpickerforever]

aDave is correct, Vladimir Lenin.




Was located in LaBrea in 2011 article

Why he is now residing in the Mojave is beyond me. Facelift? Cleaning? Kidnapped by scrappers?

[aDave]

Jul 5, 2017 23:58:40 GMT -5 rockpickerforever said:

aDave is correct, Vladimir Lenin.




Was located in LaBrea in 2011 article

Why he is now residing in the Mojave is beyond me. Facelift? Cleaning? Kidnapped by scrappers?

Interesting.  Good find.  I was just going off recollection.  Thanks for the work rockpickerforever.

Dave

[Deleted]

Holy batshit!

Lenin in Newberry Spring!!

[aDave]

Jul 6, 2017 0:07:34 GMT -5 @letmein said:

See jasoninhollywood.blogspot.com

Don't know the history of the statue, but it gets around.

Let me help since the generic reference doesn't point to the intended article...

Not much info, but it describes the sculpture HERE

Consdidering the subject, I'm all for it being in the desert.  Better yet, scrapped.  Why a communist was on display is beyond me.

Dave

[Deleted]

I remember the 1974 Spokane World's Fair, and the USSR pavilion had a similar silvery head about that size just as you walked into the main hall - don't recall a scarf around the neck or the beanie on top. I wonder if it was a left-over from that or another exhibition? I recall the thing being so big that I can't think that the Russians would spend the money and effort to haul something like that back to the Soviet Union. Someone could have sliced it up for transport and reworked it, though.

[Sabre52]

Tell John, the Commies have invaded his town!!!!!....Mel

[Deleted]

This page

www.online812.ru/2010/12/08/015/

Says it was installed in Vancouver Canada in 2009

The current installation is missing the miss Mao dancing on his head portion.

Wierd

[Deleted]

Jul 6, 2017 3:30:15 GMT -5 @rocks2dust said:

I remember the 1974 Spokane World's Fair, and the USSR pavilion had a similar silvery head about that size just as you walked into the main hall - don't recall a scarf around the neck or the beanie on top. I wonder if it was a left-over from that or another exhibition? I recall the thing being so big that I can't think that the Russians would spend the money and effort to haul something like that back to the Soviet Union. Someone could have sliced it up for transport and reworked it, though.

I found a reference to this giant head, but no images to see if it's the same.

The title of this piece is "Miss Mao dancing on the head of Lenin" and was produced by the Gao brothers of Chinese descent.

Miss Mao is missing in my image

[rockpickerforever]

Jul 6, 2017 10:08:07 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

I found a reference to this giant head, but no images to see if it's the same.

The title of this piece is "Miss Mao dancing on the head of Lenin" and was produced by the Gap brothers of Chinese descent.

Miss Mao is missing in my image

Photo: Gao Brothers pose alongside their sculpture titled "Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head."

Credit: Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang 

Photo from the article linked to below.

From an article in the LA Times 12/28/09

Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong are long dead and buried. But like Jesus Christ, they are continually resurrected by artists looking to get a rise out of curators, collectors, journalists and government censors.

One of the latest incarnations of communism's most recognizable faces is a large-scale sculpture titled "Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head," on display as part of the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale. The artwork, created by the brothers Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang, features a giant bust of Lenin's head with a small figure of Mao on top performing a balancing act.

This comment was recently (6/29/17) posted following the article:

One of these Lenin heads popped up in Newberry Springs CA this week

So now we know how long it has been there, the question is - why?

from the text below a video on YouTube link
Published on Jan 17, 2010

"Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenins Head" art installation in the City of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada by the Gao Brothers of China.

This large scale sculpture features two iconic figures in shiny polished stainless steel, a diminutive Miss Mao delicately balancing on the head Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary whose monumental ideas profoundly influenced Chinese political history. This potentially controversial sculpture is part of the Gao Brothers Miss Mao series, often described as cynical realism.

This sculpture can be read as a political narrative, as well as a reflection on the current nostalgic attitude toward Mao. The position and scale of the two figures simultaneously questions and ridicules their relative positions in an undeniable commentary. The Gao Brothers have consciously chosen to play the role of social critic and therefore walk a careful line in terms of politics.

Read more about the brothers and their work on their website.  This piece is fifth photo down the page.

Strange, if you ask me.  There is some art I just don't get, lol.


ETA - Some of the articles say it is stainless steel, others say it is chromed.

[Deleted]

I'm out there again today. I'll try to get more pics and see if I can speak to the owner.

[Deleted]

Jul 6, 2017 10:08:07 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

I found a reference to this giant head, but no images to see if it's the same.

The title of this piece is "Miss Mao dancing on the head of Lenin" and was produced by the Gao brothers of Chinese descent.

Miss Mao is missing in my image

Miss Mao wasn't on the Spokane World's Fair piece, either. It just came to mind because it was plated in chrome (or something similar) and about the same size (10 feet tall). Bad photos I've found (one of which may up below) don't show how extremely shiny or big it was. Chrome must not photo well, because it wasn't anything like as dull or lacking in detail as the photos make it appear. The whole exhibit was full of chrome, very glitzy. I may even have a better photo, but we were taking slides back then, and I no longer have a projector:

No one seems to have kept track of what happened to the exhibition's head. I think it would have had to be cut into sections in order to be removed and shipped, so my thought was that it could have been reworked into the current piece. Maybe so, maybe not? If so, then they emphasized the sliced up sections, bolted Miss Mao onto the top and added some drapery around the neck.

[Deleted]

Jul 6, 2017 15:38:59 GMT -5 @rocks2dust said:

Jul 6, 2017 10:08:07 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

I found a reference to this giant head, but no images to see if it's the same.

The title of this piece is "Miss Mao dancing on the head of Lenin" and was produced by the Gao brothers of Chinese descent.

Miss Mao is missing in my image

Miss Mao wasn't on the Spokane World's Fair piece, either. It just came to mind because it was plated in chrome (or something similar) and about the same size (10 feet tall). Bad photos I've found (one of which may up below) don't show how extremely shiny or big it was. Chrome must not photo well, because it wasn't anything like as dull or lacking in detail as the photos make it appear. The whole exhibit was full of chrome, very glitzy. I may even have a better photo, but we were taking slides back then, and I no longer have a projector:

No one seems to have kept track of what happened to the exhibition's head. I think it would have had to be cut into sections in order to be removed and shipped, so my thought was that it could have been reworked into the current piece. Maybe so, maybe not? If so, then they emphasized the sliced up sections, bolted Miss Mao onto the top and added some drapery around the neck.

Different head.

The old one was smaller....

ETA

Has very different chin hair

[Deleted]

Not going out there today. Monday. Having lunch at the Coptic Monestary! Woot!

[rockpickerforever]

Jul 6, 2017 15:38:59 GMT -5 @rocks2dust said:

Miss Mao wasn't on the Spokane World's Fair piece, either. It just came to mind because it was plated in chrome (or something similar) and about the same size (10 feet tall). Bad photos I've found (one of which may up below) don't show how extremely shiny or big it was. Chrome must not photo well, because it wasn't anything like as dull or lacking in detail as the photos make it appear. The whole exhibit was full of chrome, very glitzy. I may even have a better photo, but we were taking slides back then, and I no longer have a projector:

No one seems to have kept track of what happened to the exhibition's head. I think it would have had to be cut into sections in order to be removed and shipped, so my thought was that it could have been reworked into the current piece. Maybe so, maybe not? If so, then they emphasized the sliced up sections, bolted Miss Mao onto the top and added some drapery around the neck.

What Scott said, totally different piece, different materials, different size.  Possibly still done by the same brothers.  The one now residing in Newberry Springs was also exhibited at the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale in late 2009, where it caused an uproar.

As for it being sliced up, no.  It was made that way:

This huge Vladimir Lenin popped up overnight this past weekend at La Brea and Fourth St., outside a building owned by Ace Gallery (a Banksy appeared on and was removed from a wall there in 2010). The piece is "Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin's Head" by the Chinese artist brothers Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang and it caused an uproar at the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale in late 2009. Blog Fairfax By Night first spotted the sculpture and explains  "With a vivid chrome finish, the metal sculpture is constructed from horizontal sections that were purposefully staggered...As such a well know person, the artists' decision to give his face a chrome finish takes the focus away from Lenin, and to the sculpture's context by allowing the reflections to highlight the immediate surroundings instead of Lenin..." In this case, of course, that's a slightly blighty intersection on a drive-through section of La Brea.

As such a well known person, the artists’ decision to give his face a chrome finish takes the focus away from Lenin, and to the sculpture’s context by allowing the reflections to highlight the immediate surroundings instead of Lenin in an appropriately demeaning fashion. The staggered sections represent his broken and destructive legacy that brought so much turmoil to Russia. Atop is a very playful inclusion of baby holding a balance stick on top of Lenin’s protruding head, as if walking a tight rope of his disastrous and risky Marxist ideals.

from la.curbed.com/2011/12/13/10416510/there-is-now-a-giant-bust-of-lenin-on-la-brea-1

And a close up glimpse of Miss Mao.

No telling where that part is at now.

I'm thinking the sculpture is being renovated in preparation for another show.  Perhaps some news can be revealed by talking with the owner/proprietor.  In good time.

[Deleted]

One of the gao brothers lives in Newberry Springs?

Explains it's presence

[rockpickerforever]

Does he? That would explain it's presence!

[parfive]

If it was in front of Steve Cohen’s house, be worth about fifty mil.

[jamesp]

He's watching you guys.

Ship him over here to the gun range. Just don't leave him on my property.