Artist's text Liu Wei, 2003
Underneath
The Chinese title of this video piece comes from a small lane’s name in the downtown area of Beijing. Literally, it can be translated as “ In the deep end of the hundred flowers”. This small lane was once a beautiful garden which was also mentioned by Laoshe, a renowned novelist whose novels typically concentrated on Beijing folks’ every day life in early and mid of 20th century. Now with the city’s continuous reconstruction and expansion, hardly can we locate this small lane’s sign any longer. The people working on the garbage hill are farmers who live on the edge of the city. They lost their farmlands due to the ever-growing urbanization process. Now their lands have become the city’s garbage dumping places. What can they do about it? They can do nothing but merely swallow the fact and earn their daily living through diligent digging and finding in the garbage hill. The mountain-like garbage world therefore completely separate them from their real being and their once owned farmlands as well. This in another way tells what I feel in the city full of different images. The city dwellers are also getting used to seek and grab what they want from the flood of external medias, which essentially play dominating and forcing role in their lives. In China, Beijing is undoubtedly the center stage reflecting the rapid growth of consuming culture and urbanization. There are so many interesting and confusing things going on every day, leaving me a big space to explore what I see and feel about the city. And to me, this is another sorrowful side of the colorful city life. I finished this video work in 2001, through which I try to tell some different feelings towards the capital city I live in. The flourishing growth of its modern economy and the fast pace of its urbanization process make the city a fantasy world. A tide of media images pour in on us from every direction, overfilling our eyes and ears, rendering our real senses insensate, allowing no line of sight to the reality of life. The reality thus is buried among the tide of images. In the mean time, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas how the media and images influence and affect people’s minds and their lives.
Associação Cultural Videobrasil. 14th Videobrasil CD-ROM, São Paulo, 2003.