Polit-Sheer-Form Office – artist collective: HONG Hao, XIAO Yu, SONG Dong, LIU Jianhua, LENG Lin (Beijing)

Do the Same Good Deed, 2014, single-channel video, color, sound, 8′.

A public performance in Guangzhou, China in 2014, which examined notions of individualism and collectivism, concerned with the idea of ‘we’ in a ‘me’ world. The piece presents a new Socialist order for the 21st century, within a society that has moved away from its traditional, collective ideals. A humorous edge underlies all works by the group—their name, “Polit-Sheer-Form Office” is translated literally as the “office of pure political form,” meant to sound like an absurd governmental bureau.

About the Artists / Collective:

Polit-Sheer-Form Office (PSFO) is an art collective founded in 2005 for the abstract purpose of purifying politics, culture, the economy, and everyday life for 21st century mankind. PSFO seeks to revive a collective way of life associated with their youth, without nostalgia for the politics of the era. The group’s boundary-blurring projects involve talking, traveling, eating, reading, and playing together to resist current ideologies of consumerism and establish a contemporary form of Socialism based on the possibilities of shared experience. PSFO has held public performances in Guangzhou, China and in Times Square in New York City. They have been featured in group exhibitions at Art Space in Sydney and Documenta 12 in Kassel; in 2014 the group had a major solo exhibition at Queens Museum in New York.