Chinese Offspring
Zhang Dali
张大力
Production date
2005-2010
Object Detail
Media
fibre-reinforced polymer, automotive spray paint, acrylic paint
Measurements
30 figures, dimensions variable
Notes
Rural migrant workers, an underclass whom Zhang Dali considers his ‘brothers and sisters’, have become the focus for recent bodies of work. Chinese Offspring (2005) confronts the viewer with thirty life-sized naked figures suspended from the ceiling. Cast from the bodies of migrant workers who lived between the city’s edges and the countryside, they represent a significant historical moment, China’s transition from an agricultural to a primarily urban nation. These people possess nothing apart from their physical strength as workers, says Zhang Dali, who after the year 2000 chose to focus on people rather than the physical environment and issues of demolition and urban consolidation. Without connections (guanxi), these workers are separated from city dwellers and are often held in contempt. They have not enjoyed the same rights as those possessing the valuable hukou residency permit that provides access to education for their children, tenancy rights, and health services. They are on their own, subject to removal by government decree from ad-hoc dwellings on the city’s outskirts with almost no notice. Each suspended body, eyes closed, is marked with a number, the artist’s signature, and the title Chinese Offspring, a recognition of their anonymity. Powerless and mute, they hang in the gallery space like unclaimed corpses.
Accession number
2015.107