Week
3 – Learning to look at artworks
Article on reading artworks
Zhang Huan
To
raise the water level in a fishpond
1997
DVD colour, stereo, 6:19 minutes.
This video portrays a number of Asian men
and one child lining up, removing their clothes down to their underwear and
entering into a pond in an organized and orderly fashion. The pond is bordered
by a row of trees yet there is the presence of a large city in the background.
The video shows the men exiting the water and then finishes.
From the didactic the audience learns that
this is a collaborative work whereby Zhang has invited 40 rural migrants, who
have come to Beijing seeking work, to participate. They wade into the Nanmofang
fishpond, located in Beijing, and displace the water level with their mass. The
didactic also points out that these migrant labourers and fishermen are known
as ‘the floating population’.
The fact that
this work is a video with sound instead of photographs or other documentation
methods for me highlights the human element. These migrants are portrayed as a
group yet also individuals are focused upon and we see the expressions on their
faces in close range and hear them talking and laughing amongst themselves.
Whereas migrants can be represented in a negative, stereotypical light this
video for me uses playful humour to underly the struggles the migrants may face
and show their humanity.
The use of the
declothed body suggests vulnerability and once again emphasizes the humanity of
the migrants. There is a sense of irony in the fact that these migrants are
often labeled ‘the floating population’ yet Zhang undermines this label as when
they enter the water the migrants stand firmly. This sense of solidarity in the
group is highlighted in the orderly fashion in which they enter and leave the
water and there is a sense of hope that Zhang places in the power of
collaborative actions to have effects such as raising the water level. The idea
of displacement is cleverly expressed as the migrants displace the water yet
they themselves have also been displaced in their search for employment.
Throughout the
video however there is this sense of playfulness as the men chatter and laugh
amongst themselves and as they are exiting the pond the fish start leaping
everywhere! Only one child is present in the water upon his fathers shoulders
we assume which for me speaks of the next generation and raises serious
questions amidst the irony and humour of what the future may hold for the
children and future generations. In addition there is reference for me to the
impact that industry and people have upon the environment as we see the fish
getting displaced themselves as well as the water- a vital life giving element
that we are all reliant upon.
The work was made in 1997 at a time in China when
capitalism had taken a huge surge forward and China was the second largest
recipient after USA of foreign investment (Buster, G 2003 The transition to
capitalism).
Buster states that ‘the public sector was besieged by
the dizzying growth of the rural industrial sector, special economic zones and
new urban private enterprises. It was also consciously pillaged by the
provincial bureaucracies who, in a climate of rampant corruption, helped
themselves to social funds and the assets of the public enterprises dependent
on the central budget to maintain investments in the private sector in their
provinces. The provincial bureaucracies could only tax their private sectors to
support their budgets, whereas the needs of the provincial governments grew as
central transfers fell. The central bureaucracy saw its capacity for extraction
of the social surplus product of the public sector fall, and had to negotiate
with the local bureaucracies over their contributions to the central budget.
The regional disequilibrium was enormous, social inequality exploded, the
privatization of agriculture led to unemployment for 250 million peasants and
emigration to the cities for 100 million others - the so-called “floating
population”. If poverty fell in the countryside, in the towns 117 million new
poor appeared, 80% of them in the central and western regions. The health and
education system, which had become private, progressively disintegrated.’
This research gives a new sense of impending crises
portrayed by the city of Beijing in the background and despite the touches of
humour and humanity this video leaves us with serious questions about the
future that capitalism has created and will be creating in China in particular
but also globally for both people and the natural environment.
Bibliography
Buster, G 2003, The transition to capitalism, International viewpoint, viewed 8th
April 2014 http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article117
Zhang Huan To raise the water level in a fishpond 1997
film still, mine.
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