798
Last summer, I spent a month in Beijing learning the language of my people. In between the three hour lectures and struggling over re-pronouncing long lost phonemes, we had some spare time to explore the area.
Whilst searching for souvenirs, I stumbled upon an artistic neighbourhood known as the 798 art district. This area was named after and formed around an old abandoned factory located in the northeast corner of the city. It was built during the 1950s under Chairman Mao’s reign, hence the communist motivational statements, such as ‘Long Live Chairman Mao’, printed across the ceiling in large red chinese characters.
798 district was the result of the people’s rebellion against this time of creative inhibition. The collaboration and experimentation between and among artists is evident in the scattered collections of sculptures and art galleries within the district. In this act of ex-corporation, which is the process by which the subordinate make their own culture out of the resources and commodities provided by the dominant system, a controversial popular culture was born. Artists soon branched out to using other types of material, such as fiberglass, paint and different types of metals, to further develop their messages.
One sculpture that caught my eye was a peculiar piece by Liu Qiang titled ‘29h59’59’. It depicts masses of naked people climbing over one another towards an animal’s udders who growls angrily yet succumbs to this unpleasant treatment. There are several ways to interpret this work. Initially, I saw this as a daring portrayal of the act of drinking cows milk and how very unnatural it is to depend on the milk of the mother of another species for healthy growth. Further contemplation of this art work led me to think about how the title ‘29h59’59’ related to the sculpture itself.
It is well known amongst the scientific community that the solar day gains roughly a second every couple of years. The ‘29h59’59’ could be referring to a time very far in the future where our standard 24 hours in a day might have become 29 hours. At this point, the human population may have ballooned to a number where the earth can no longer support it. Our hopeless desperation for natural resources is therefore represented by the chaotic crowds beneath the cow with three udders which depicts our insatiable need for consumption.
The relevance of this art piece and the Culture and Media CAP course that I am taking lies in the way that Qiang has embodied the taboo subject of the inevitable end to the world around us into his work. Embodiment requires the understanding of how our senses are involved in the meanings that we make. Through our sense of sight, Qiang’s play on perspective – tiny humans compared to a huge cow – confuses us and encourages us to formulate meaning behind his work. I couldn’t remember if we were allowed to touch the work or not but I do remember feeling hesitant towards the idea. The meanings that I had thought up determined the space around the work that I allowed myself to walk in and it is this interplay of meanings and senses which shows how ‘in touch’ I am with the world and with others around me.
Sources:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/798-art-zone.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/extra-second.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=earth-rotation-summer-solstice
One Comment