{
    "data": {
        "id": 169848,
        "accession_number": "2012.102",
        "share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
        "tombstone": "My Left Hand (with Young Mao), 2004. Qi Sheng (Chinese, b. 1965). Chromogenic print; framed: 99.1 x 68.6 cm (39 x 27 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 2012.102. \u00a9 Qi Sheng",
        "current_location": null,
        "title": "My Left Hand (with Young Mao)",
        "creation_date": "2004",
        "creation_date_earliest": 2004,
        "creation_date_latest": 2004,
        "artists_tags": [
            "male"
        ],
        "culture": [
            "China, 21st century"
        ],
        "technique": "chromogenic print",
        "support_materials": [],
        "department": "Photography",
        "collection": "PH - Misc. 20th Century",
        "type": "Photograph",
        "measurements": "Framed: 99.1 x 68.6 cm (39 x 27 in.)",
        "dimensions": {
            "framed": {
                "height": 0.991,
                "width": 0.686
            }
        },
        "state_of_the_work": null,
        "edition_of_the_work": null,
        "copyright": "\u00a9 Qi Sheng",
        "inscriptions": [],
        "exhibitions": {
            "current": [
                {
                    "id": 524148,
                    "title": "Refocusing Photography: China at the Millenium",
                    "description": "<i>Refocusing Photography: China at the Millenium</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 8-November 16, 2025).",
                    "opening_date": "2025-06-08T04:00:00"
                }
            ],
            "legacy": []
        },
        "provenance": [
            {
                "description": "Unknown, probably purchased through a gallery; Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg; Cleveland Museum of Art",
                "citations": [],
                "footnotes": null,
                "date": null,
                "sortorder": null
            }
        ],
        "find_spot": null,
        "related_works": [],
        "former_accession_numbers": [],
        "did_you_know": null,
        "description": "In 1989, a pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square was brutally quashed by government forces, followed by suppression of avant-garde art activities and exhibitions. Performance artist Qi Sheng chose self-imposed exile when he could not continue making his art. Before leaving, he cut off the little finger of his left hand. He buried it in a flowerpot so that when his body went to Europe, his soul would remain rooted in China. Returning after ten years away, he photographed that hand cradling tiny portraits. This image of Mao Zedong suggests the origins of the political forces that led him to such a desperate act. \u201cI am not only an artist,\u201d said Qi, \u201cI am an observer and recorder of history.\u201d",
        "external_resources": {
            "wikidata": [
                "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80077656"
            ],
            "internet_archive": []
        },
        "citations": [
            {
                "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em>. Vol. 53 no. 02, March/April 2013",
                "page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 15",
                "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2013-02/page/n13"
            }
        ],
        "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.102",
        "images": {},
        "alternate_images": [],
        "creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
        "image_credit": null,
        "sketchfab_id": null,
        "sketchfab_url": null,
        "gallery_donor_text": null,
        "athena_id": 169848,
        "creators": [
            {
                "id": 63016,
                "description": "Qi Sheng (Chinese, b. 1965)",
                "extent": null,
                "qualifier": null,
                "role": "artist",
                "biography": null,
                "name_in_original_language": "\u76db\u5947",
                "birth_year": "1965",
                "use_in_caption": true,
                "include_extent": false,
                "weight": 1
            }
        ],
        "legal_status": "accessioned",
        "accession_date": "2012-12-03T00:00:00",
        "sortable_date": 2004,
        "date_added_to_oa": null,
        "date_text": "2004",
        "collapse_artists": false,
        "on_loan": false,
        "recently_acquired": false,
        "record_type": "object",
        "conservation_statement": null,
        "has_conservation_images": false,
        "cover_accession_number": null,
        "is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
        "impression": "7",
        "alternate_titles": [],
        "is_highlight": false,
        "updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:04:39.845000"
    }
}