FAKE
This photo of the ‘Fucking Fake’ t-shirt is in my Whatever I Like book, now available at Timezone, 798 Dashanzi, Beijing. The installation continues at Pickled Art Centre, BeiGao, Beijing until Nov. 4.
Recently I learned that fake city-citizenship identification is something migrant workers may seek in order to have the privileges of city citizenship, which include access to healthcare and education for their children. The conversation came up because we had noticed these mobile phone numbers spray-painted on walls outside the city centre, and wondered what they were for. Aside from at the 798 art enclave, these numbers are the only graffiti around that I’ve seen, and they are often painted out.
Whatever I Like, the name I gave to the project a couple of weeks ago now, opened last night at Pickled Art Centre. The title comes from the t-shirt that read: “Free to be Whatever I Like.” For the wall paintings, I generally chose instructive phrases and words from my collection of message t-shirt images, all found in the accompanying Whatever I Like publication. The words and phrases are arranged in alphabetical order and stenciled on the wall onto the three rectangular painted colour patches.
Stenciling of information is common around Beijing, for instance all the trucks have stenciled license plates and I like this connection to everyday practical signage. Visually and conceptually, these wall paintings also bear a resemblance to Chairman Mao’s workplace propaganda paintings, such as those preserved on the walls at 798 Dashanzi, the increasingly well-known art haven in Beijing. In part, this work is about a new kind of propaganda.
