The work, Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland, came to the attention of Jiang Qing – Madame Mao – and was selected for an exhibition of propaganda posters in Beijing.
In high excitement, Shen travelled to Beijing to see the work, only to discover to his horror that Madame Mao had the faces of the two key figures repainted because she considered them not heroic enough.
Decades later, Shen had reacquired the original. As he told the story he went to a stack of canvases, pulled out the painting and said, gleefully: “But now, I have changed it back to how it should be!”
Alison Clouston and Boyd are mainstays of the Bundeena art and music scene.Credit: Gus Armstrong
Shen takes his place in the Bundeena artist hall of fame alongside many others including Bulgari Award winner Ildiko Kovacs, Lan Wang (Shen’s wife), Bob Marchant, Leanne Thompson and Alison Clouston. Perhaps best-known of all is Archibald and Dobell prizes winner Garry Shead, who has his first solo Bundeena show at The Little Gallery in the village’s main street, which features new work responding to his iconic DH Lawrence series of the 1990s.
The yang to the ying of Bundeena’s visual art is its thriving music scene. The proliferation of performance everywhere can probably be blamed on the fact there is not a lot happening here – especially after the last ferry leaves.
Bundeena is a long way off the touring route for pretty much every artist. The last big act to play here was Eric Bogle, who performed to a sold-out crowd last year, but big names are very few and far between.
Bernie McGann used to deliver the mail in Bundeena.Credit: Peter Karp
A DIY music scene has evolved, and from sea shanty singalongs to folk nights, and big band sessions to blues afternoons, the joint is jumping more often than not.
Home-grown stars include veteran blues singer Sally King, evergreen soul legend Peter Morgan (BumpCity) and mononymic sax virtuoso Boyd.
Older residents still remember when jazz royalty Bernie McGann delivered their mail and practised his alto sax in bushland after work. McGann’s Bundeena remains one of the finest hard-bop albums ever produced.
Central to the thriving community music scene are the Ramshackle Orkestra (full disclosure: I am a founding member). The ensemble proudly accepts anyone, at any level, on any instrument and somehow makes it all work together in a ramshackly sort of way.
They can often be heard welcoming slightly bemused tourists getting off the morning ferry with spirited renditions of Eastern European folk or New Orleans jazz on instruments including ukes, cellos, fiddles and trombones.
Eccentric, joyful and often a little confused, the Ramshackle Orkestra is the perfect metaphor for the cultural life of Bundeena.