Fun
- Artist: Xiyadie
- Date: 2001
- Medium: Paper
- Dimensions: support: 292 × 296 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Fun” by Xiyadie, created in 2001. It’s part of a quartet of small squares that echo the classic Chinese red‑paper cut style—white background, stylised flora and fauna—yet Xiyadie layers an entirely different narrative onto the surface. The cuts are made on the same resilient, absorbent “xuanzhi” paper that Chinese calligraphers use, but the artist hand‑paints them with bright food colouring normally reserved for steaming bao buns. What looks like a cheerful flower at first glance is actually the outline of buttocks or genitalia, and a bicycle scene reveals two nude male figures riding side‑by‑side. In this way the works act as a Trojan horse, quietly depicting queer intimacy in a medium that has long been associated with women’s domestic craft. Xiyadie’s papercuts are not only a celebration of the ancient folk art but also a bold, subversive statement about identity and visibility.
See it in person
Fun is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
