Event 4: Delete Me Exhibition (Extra Credit)

A picture of me, Yuehao Jiang, and Katherine Lee, another student in this class. 

On May 18th, I attended the opening of the Design Media Arts MFA students exhibition. The title of the exhibition was "Delete Me", which aimed to explore our digital presence and the permanency of the digital world. There was a wide variety of pieces and interactive activities throughout the show, and I was able to observe and interact with a few of them, including the "Knicker Twister", "Untitled", and "Rumen8: the end". However, the one that drew me the most was the artwork titled "Shanzhai Remix" by Yuehao Jiang.

Left - Visitors interacting with the "Rumen8: the end" exhibit. 

Right - "Shanzhai Remix" exhibit with the title projected on the wall, along with the sculptures. 

There were several elements to this piece, each contributing to the main message and theme behind the entire piece. On one wall, the words "Shanzhai Remix" in English and Chinese were animated and projected along the wall. Close to this wall, several different sculptures were lined up, each painted on and had a black light shining on it to create fluorescent colors. These sculptures were in the shape of shoes, dolls, and tanks, although their shapes were distorted. Along another wall, similar images of the  sculptures were projected onto the wall, which included cell phones, shoes, drones, doll heads, and cars. While it looked like these images were simply projected onto the wall, upon closer inspection I realized that the wall was actually already molded to the shapes of the different images. A third wall had two screens mounted on it, and showed  images of designer purses and bags, along with a 3D animation of the bags rotating along the screen.

Left - The wall of distorted images of different products projected onto the wall. 

Right - Looking closely, I saw that the wall was actually molded to the shape of these images, creating a 3D look.

The artist, Yuehao Jiang, was standing next to her work, and I was able to ask about her piece, "Shanzhai Remix". She explained that her inspiration behind this piece was the counterfeit industry in China. Many Chinese companies will create their own products and copy the design and image from popular Western products, and will then sell these counterfeit products at a much cheaper price to Chinese customers. While many people do not have a problem with this, and many tourists to China will actually buy these counterfeits, Jiang expressed that she had always felt uncomfortable with this and did not approve of it. She stated that by simply copying the image and design of popular Western products and selling them to Chinese consumers, the original meaning and intent of the product is taken away. Jiang gave the example of the minions from "Despicable Me", which have become very popular in China. While products with the minions can be found everywhere, many Chinese people have never watched "Despicable Me". The distorted images projected on the walls and with the sculptures reflected this untruthful copying of Western products. "Shanzhai", which translated means "copycat", also reflects this idea.

One of the screens displaying images of purses and a 3D animation of these purses rotating. 

The "Shanzhai Remix" exhibition was particularly interesting to me because, having lived in Beijing, I have seen these counterfeit products everywhere and have actually bought a few of them myself. Whenever family friends would visit, my family would always take them to these malls that specialize in selling counterfeit, cheap products. However, it never occurred to me before talking with Jiang that this industry can harm the original products by distorting their original meaning and intent. It made me examine my own thoughts about counterfeit products, and I feel that now I have a more well-rounded view of the issue of counterfeit products in China.