 |
|
 |
   |
 |
|
|
Video With National Characteristics (2007)
|
|
| Four simultaneous and continuous streams of mini-documentary on the simulation and replication of Western forms and culture in the city of Shenzhen, People's Republic of China. Shenzhen is the closest mainland city to the semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, and was the first attempt by Deng Xiaoping and the Communist government at repeating Hong Kong's growth and prosperity by dabbling in a market-driven economy. "Communism with national (or Chinese) characteristics" is party jargon for China's current political and social system, which in practice usually combines the worst characteristics of conformist, Communist police state and unfettered Thatcherite capitalism.
The aesthetic of the work replicates the look of domestically sold Chinese televisions and public video displays, which tend to be of very poor quality and/or malfunctioning from the moment they leave the factory. Shenzhen and Hong Kong are also saturated with illegal and shoddy Chinese duplicates of global brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Sony. This is in distinct contrast to the goods made in Shenzhen for export to the outside world, which include many expensive and high prestige items rarely seen in mainland China itself. iPods, Apple Macs, Intel processors, Playstation and Wii consoles, phones and advanced video graphics cards for gaming are manufactured in Shenzhen's vast industrial hinterlands, at immense factories such as the (in)famous Taiwanese-owned Foxconn. The workers (it's been reported there are 270,000 of them at Foxconn) usually also live in the factories as well, having left China's poor rural interior and their families behind. Much of the footage in this work was taken at 'Windows on the World', a Shenzhen theme park that was the brainchild of Deng's wife. It contains replicas (or bootlegs) of many internationally known landmarks and architectural achievements. These range from 1/4 size Eiffel Tower to a radically miniaturised New York City. WotW has a Chinese twin, 'Splendid China', also founded by the Dengs and containing miniatures of Chinese landmarks including 30cm-tall Great Wall. WotW is usually packed, but Chinese tourists don't seem to like 'Splendid China' very much. 'Video With National Characteristics' was made at the OCT Contemporary Art Terminal of the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, during a residency in the autumn and winter of 2007. That this work turned into a critique of China's current cultural crisis- or rather, the latest in a long line of Chinese cultural crises- is particularly ironic given that He Xiangning is the first state-funded art gallery outside Beijing, intended as an outlet for politically safe and profitably commercial Chinese art of the kind also currently fashionable in the West. Top of page: still from Video With National Characteristics, showing miniature Shenzhen replicas of the Eiffel Tower, New York City (World Trade Center intact), Venice's Piazza San Marco, Versailles, the Taj Mahal and Sydney harbour.   |
|
 HOME - VIDEO - INSTALLATION - PHOTOGRAPHY - FICTION - INFORMATIONMORE VIDEO: BLACK SUN - HYPNOMART - MOURNING WOOD - NOWHERE PLAINS - PHANTOM POWER - THREE TIMES TRUE - STAG FILM |
|