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What comes to your mind when reading about the Chinese economy? Due to ever-increasing media coverage - likely not to be the last thing we think about at night - most of us have some sort of image, no matter how vague.
A new exhibit at Columbia College's Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan Ave., attempts to clarify our hazy conceptions and to put a human face on China's ground-shaking economic development. Titled Made in China, the exhibit opened last week and will run until March 4.
Made in China explores the burgeoning Chinese economy and its impact on individuals though photography, video and installation. Six artists are showcased, as well as an award-winning series of articles called Made in China: The New Industrial Revolution, written for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by reporters John Schmid and Rick Romell.
"I'd like us in the West to see the topic with artistic vision," says Natasha Egan, associate director and organizer for the exhibit. Made in China begins with artist Edward Burtynsky's photographs of enormous factories located in China's newly-established industrialized zones.
These factories employ thousands of workers and the magnitude of their operation is immediately striking. The size is further emphasized by the uniformity of architecture and the rows upon rows of production lines.
The conflict of enormity and individuality is accentuated in China Manufacturing #11. The viewer sees thousands of workers bending over to eat in the factory dinning hall. Among all of these uniformed workers, a colorfully dressed woman sits alone at a table. "We tend to envision a mass of people, but we wanted to tell the story of the individual," Egan says.
Individuality is further explored by artist Polly Braden. Braden follows a single factory girl, Ho Ping, from her village in the Henan Province in eastern central China to her job as a supervisor at Selena, a shoe factory that produces Nine West and Clarks.
Ping is only planning on working there until she is 25. She works 50 weeks a year, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for a salary of about $95 a month. Ping lives in a dormitory not far from the factory, and to Braden, life seemed ironically "not unlike that of a college campus."
Among Braden's photographs is a shot of Ping shopping. Busses are provided for the workers to travel from the factory into town. A popular destination is a shopping center where Ping and other workers often end up consumers of their own products.
"The line between producer and consumer is really blurred; we don't usually think of the Chinese as consumers of their own products," Egan says.
Braden also follows Ping on a visit home - her first in over a year.
"She came home and seemed older and more mature than those who stayed behind," Braden says. "She had gained a form of independence. Her goal was to save enough money to buy a home, and she did that."
Braden captures a poignant moment of Ping showing her siblings her new cell phone; her body language is triumphant.
Melanie Jackson questions the effects of isolation and leaving home in her multi-video installation. One screen shows a musician who migrated from her village to London to study the erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument. "She is learning about herself from a foreign perspective," Egan says." "She tries to learn about herself through this instrument but ultimately succumbs to alienation."
The other scene shows a young woman's troubled journey home to work in a fake eyelash factory. She tries to earn enough to support her family but ultimately is disillusioned and frustrated. The stark contrast of her ideals with her job (she makes 400 eyelashes per month using 450 one-inch pieces of hair) is given visual expression through Jackson's color choice and scene sequences.
Individuality and the environment of the factories are brought out in Michael Wolf's piece, The Real Toy Story. He has installed thousands of used toys bought in California flee markets on the walls of a small room along with photographic portraits of workers in toy factories. The photographs serve as a welcome respite after the abundance of color from the toys. Wolf juxtaposes workers' personality with the mass of identical of toys.
The exhibit continues with Danwen Xing's photographs of electronic trash. These photos emphasize the mechanical aspect of factory life and its natural byproduct. "They reflect raw economics at work," Egan says.
Cathy Hareas of Chicago was struck by the sequence of mediums and subjects. "The way that the artistic expression changes from photographs, to a movie, to the technical aspects is very striking and thought provoking," she says. "It is really well done."
Xing is one of two Chinese artists showcased. The other is Jun Yang, who immigrated with his family to Austria in 1979. His piece HERO - this is WE follows a nation's identity change through the international presence of its national flag. Xing goes on to show how China has reasserted itself as a superpower through sports heroes like Xao Ming.
Finally the exhibit includes the Journal Sentinal's series from Schmid, Rommell and photojournalist Gary Porter. The series traces the impact of moving manufacturing overseas. The real story of globalization is explored on a journey from the economic struggles of small-town Wisconsin to the exploding industrial centers of China.
"It was interesting to see the other side of things - especially Western artists' take on China," Chris Masse of Chicago says. "We know China is a world player, but seeing this really makes what that means sink in."
Weinberg senior Emma Hanke is a PLAY writer. She can be reached at e-hanke@northwestern.edu.
