![Liu Xiaodong - Disobeying the Rules [1996]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3927/15234136419_287f897891_o.jpg)
Liu Xiaodong’s art has always been rooted in his own life, and his paintings are always based on everyday scenes or photographs. While driving, he happened to be able to photograph a truck filled with people and another one filled with pigs. The two images gave him a tremendous impact, inspiring him to make the migrant workers naked and place gas cans on the truck. “The Chinese are pitiable. They have no individual life. Everyone suffers through every day mechanically, doing nothing actively or energetically. Much like pigs, they are not in charge of their own fates.” Like cargo being transported from place to place, like pigs being transported to a slaughterhouse, they have no control over their lives. “They are still happy to be alive. I don’t want to say their lives are harsh or joyless. I have painted it all in this painting.” Born in 1963 in Jincheng, Liu Xiaodong arrived in Beijing as early as 1981 to attend the affiliated high school of the Central Academy of Fine Art.
[Sotheby’s, Hong Kong - Oil on canvas, 180 x 230 cm]