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Exhibition in Shanghai celebrates all things mundane

By Zhang Kun (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-06 09:24

SHANGHAI: Chamber pots, flyswatters, duster brushes, mops made of rags these used to be necessary items for everyday life in Shanghai and most other cities in China. At one time, every community in Shanghai had a mom-and-pop shop filled with such things.

Now, urban lifestyles have changed, many of these objects have lost their practical use, and the shops are disappearing from the city scene.

"Lock these objects up in a closet and open it 10 years later, you'll be surprised at what a difference it has made," Michael Lin, an artist from Taiwan, who has lived in Shanghai for two years, said last week.

Instead of doing that, Lin went to a small shop on Xiangyang Road and bought its entire stock. He then used it to create an artwork, which will go on show tonight at the Shanghai Gallery of Art at Three on the Bund.

Besides presenting all the pots, brushes, buckets, brooms and so on in the exhibition hall, Lin also hired acrobats from the Shanghai Circus World to perform stunts with the objects, and videoed the performances.

"As the economy develops, these mom-and-pop shops will be gone. People now shop at hyper-marts like Wal-Mart.

"I have these things kept in the form of art, but it's also like a time capsule.

"In 10 years' time, people may find them of archeological interest," he said.

The exhibition of mundane things at a grand place also tells a story, Lin said.

"The contrast between a humble little shop and the grandeur of the historical building tells about the change of time and space," he said.