From part of ‘Social Sensibility’ project at Bernard Controls, Beijing, China. 

In this intervention I was interested to see if I could collaborate with the factory workers to create an art piece without them changing either their behaviour, or any part of the working process.

Part of the assembly line process includes a section in which the machine being constructed is spray-painted in a confined space. I collected the waste cloths used by workers in all parts of the process, and hung these cloths in the spray area. The worker employed to spray the machines continued as usual; the difference being that the cloths now collected the trace of his action. These cloths were combined to form a painting, now hung permanently in the factory space.

This intervention could be understood in relation to the historical concept of ‘the wig’ – an unusual term for a concept that originated in early industrial Europe, where factory owners tolerated workers using factory equipment to their own ends. Greater demands for efficiency have however made this small expression of individual freedom almost impossible. 

In my intervention I actually increased the efficiency of the factory, using otherwise ‘wasted’ material and energy to create a collaboratively made artwork.

Please see https://www.socialsensibility.org for information regarding the ‘Social Sensibility’ project and Bernard Controls. See Traces for reference to my intervention.

Many thanks to Alessandro Rolandi for the opportunity, and to Zhao Tao for his willingness to collaborate!