For GB11, Li Jinghu (b. 1972, Dongguan) recreated the site-specific piece White Cloud (2009–16), which was inspired by a constellation of strip lights he saw when passing by factory buildings on a highway in Dongguan, a city in southeastern China. Now widely known as “the world’s factory,” Dongguan is one of the industrial towns that developed rapidly in the 1980s, after the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). It is home to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from different Chinese provinces, who are paid miniscule wages to produce consumer goods such as beaded jewelry, plastic bottles and containers, mobile phones, etc.
White Clouds, in the context of GB11, is produced locally in Gwangju as a way of highlighting embeddedness, one of the main concerns of this edition of the Biennale. It is also the lighting fixture for the exhibition section focusing on labor, where artworks by different artists form the zone and infrastructure such as walls (by Michael Beutler) and lighting, which in turn houses and contains other artworks.
Li’s practice has continuously engaged with the conditions and contexts of labor, often translating into installations that comprise a range of objects: Today’s Screening (2014), where beads and crystals that bejewel luxury goods are pieced together to form a screen on which movies from 1980s and ’90s Hong Kong (the sole entertainment enjoyed by workers and students alike in Dongguan then) are projected. Or in Waterfall (201603) (2016), where Li bought old telephones from workers, which contained video footage of water flowing from their living quarters’ faucets. Li’s works are sensuous and deeply empathetic reflections on the realities of a present that is continuously, and sometimes violently, shaped by human desires and societal structure. Li also used to litigate labor disputes for factory workers in Dongguan. MW
self-presentation:
My ancestors have been living in Dongguan for generations over the past 500 years. By 1950, my family was classed as landlords, their land and property was forfeited, and family members were shot dead. The majority of our family fled to different places, leaving my father and two aunts, who between the ages of 6 and 11 were left to grow up as orphans suffering all kinds of discrimination and oppression. The mental trauma left issues that continue to affect our generation. This is why the history of life on this land, the transformation of this land, as well as how the land shapes the destiny of people and changes their character makes this a complex place that I feel the need to continually investigate. The last 30 years have in particular have formed a moment of profound upheaval. All kinds of people and things have undergone or are currently undergoing intense changes due to this land; Dongguan has rapidly transformed from a rural agricultural town into a “factory of the world.” It is with my hope that I can use art as a method to continually record this and reflect on it.
