MAINLAND ARTIST Yu Chen's current exhibition, Red Babies, screams for attention. Stand in the middle of Schoeni Art Gallery and you can almost hear the 20-odd babies crying - for their mothers? Or perhaps for the ice-creams that a few of the babies are jealously guarding.
These are the children of the revolution - the Cultural Revolution - and there is no escaping the political connotations of her work. Each baby wears a green Mao cap and some have a gun slung over their shoulders. The result is at once humorous and disturbing. Born in 1963, Chen was a toddler during the Cultural Revolution, so perhaps we can assume she is working through something from her own childhood.
Chen spent hours watching her friends' babies, babies in parks, wherever she could find them to research the work. Each painting depicts a different podgy-faced baby. She uses a coarse linen canvas and applies her paint in thin layers. Small ornaments, stuck directly onto the canvas - a red bean in the ice-cream, a red star on the cap - add depth.
Schoeni Art Gallery, G/F, 21-31 Old Bailey St, Central. Mon-Sat, 10.30am-6.30pm (closed Sun and public holidays). Inquiries: 2869 8802.