Shanghai museum apologises for artwork rating female Chinese university students from ‘prettiest to ugliest’
- Artist went to a university and secretly recorded women on video then rated them according to how beautiful or ugly he thought they were
- The work was approved for display by the museum and only removed following a public backlash
A Shanghai museum has apologised for an exhibit that rated 5,000 female university students from “prettiest to ugliest” and removed it from display.
In a since deleted WeChat post on Thursday the OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT) advertised artist Song Ta’s installation work. The artwork, with the Chinese title “Campus Flower” and English title “Uglier and Uglier”, was a collection of still images and videos completed in 2013.
Song said in the project introduction that he was on a university campus and recorded women passing by him on camera. Then he rated them and numbered them according to how beautiful he thought they were, showing them in a seven-hour video from prettiest to ugliest.
“So if you want to see the campus queen, you have to go to the museum as early as possible. Otherwise, as dusk comes, it will become a living hell in this place,” he said.
The museum said in response to public criticism of the work that it would immediately remove the artwork and close the venue for further adjustments.