Small Business - Karaoke
Jin Shi
金石
Production date
2009
Object Detail
Media
bicycle rickshaw, found objects, video (colour, silent)
Measurements
installed 165 x 70 x 220 cm
video 60 min 23 sec
video 60 min 23 sec
Notes
A shabby ‘san lun che’ three-wheeled cycle of the kind seen everywhere in Chinese cities, where they carry enormous loads of everything imaginable. This tricycle is transformed into a gaudy, mobile entertainment centre with coloured lights, a tiny modest TV screen, a stack of discs and a microphone. Jin Shi had observed street stalls in Hangzhou and in his hometown in Henan selling shoddy goods and playing pornographic and outdated videos – he describes them as ‘very unsavoury’. He thought about how ordinary workers seek entertainment, spiritual solace and a respite from unrelenting hard work and decided to construct a miniaturised karaoke bar (hugely popular in China but also often associated with crime, corruption and prostitution). Jin Shi’s artworks speak of the lives of people so poor and insignificant that they are ‘made small’, their lives miniaturised and overlooked.
Accession number
2009.036