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August 30th, 2008
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Bright lights, big city

Video artists capture the frenetic pulse of a Chinese metropolis
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
April 2nd, 2008 issue

Eschewing stereotypes, the show focuses on the complexities of contemporary life in a modern Asian city.
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Shanghype: A Portrait of the City


at Futura Ends May 4. Holečkova 49, Prague 5-Smíchov. Open Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Shanghai is a megacity, a fascinating urban monster at the edge of China. And “Shanghype: A Portrait of the City” at Futura perfectly captures its cosmopolitan pulse in a rush of images by 14 Chinese and foreign video artists who live there.
A traveling show curated by Davide Quadrio from the BizArt contemporary art center in Shanghai, “Shanghype” has no political overtones. Nor does it play to common stereotypes about China: There is barely a glimpse of Chairman Mao’s face, and no red banners. We see only flashes of dragons, a Buddha or two, and a similarly small number of temples. Instead, as its subtitle suggests, the show is a diary of a day in the life of the metropolis.
In the first room at Futura, Pierre Giner’s Elsewhere Shanghai (2007) video constantly adjusts to incorporate more or fewer scenes, from three to nine, including tourist shots, back alleys and computer graphics, plus lots of buildings and people on the move.
In the next cluster of small rooms, Go Away (2006) by Huang Kui is a hyper-version of the same type of video collage, beginning with flashes of the computer program setting up the piece, followed by a row of portraits of the artist, with a low digital drum beat in the background that builds slowly. By the time the video is in full form, Shanghai is seen in fast-forward motion in a series of shots of subways, shopping malls and other features of the urban landscape, and the music has become a clanging, drum-heavy soundtrack (which reverberates throughout the gallery).
Also in this area of small rooms, We Will Come Back (2001) by Xu Zhen is a brilliant three-minute black-and-white short of a young couple sitting on a hard plastic boat meant for tourists. So as not to ruin the surprise, it is enough to say that the flies of their pants are used as pockets of convenience.
Around the corner, Alexander Brandt’s The Next Second (2008) is a silent piece with more emotional force than any of Hollywood’s romantic blockbusters. It shows a series of domestic fights, along with alternative versions of the same scenarios. We see young, troubled couples arguing in common settings: on the street, in the kitchen or living room, at the office, in a parking garage. Each of the scenarios ends violently or tragically, with physical blows, blood, violent sexual contact or death. In the alternative takes, one person makes a split-second decision that changes everything, and the couples end up hugging or kissing deeply instead of descending into emotional and physical mayhem.
Melanie Jackson’s Made in China (2005) harks back to a simpler time in the city’s social history. Through an animated video made with black pen drawings, the video follows the lives of people in a Shanghai that no longer exists.
Zhang Ding’s Big Time (2007) is a wall projection that similarly recalls a vanishing city of mystical beauty, with each scene starring a man and his mechanical horse (a bike fitted with a horse’s head). Sometimes the main character seems to float in and out of scenes on his bike, riding through deserted ancient quarters of the city wearing a white suit. But he also spends a lot of time naked in a bath, or eating noodles at a street vendor’s sidewalk table. Though set in a surreal Shanghai, this video has the weird ambience of Twin Peaks, ending in a lush red circus tent in a field of weeds not far from the city skyline.
Olivo Barbieri has two works showing in the basement. One of these, A Silent Story, has remarkable views of the city from above, showing its endless skyscrapers, high-rise apartment buildings and factories before the massive city fades to a blur.
Nearby, in a dark corner (where it belongs), Yang Zhenzhong’s Na Xiong Na Er is the sound of sex. A woman moans loudly while skyscrapers ram up and down suggestively on screen. “Shanghai is becoming a city filled with phallic skyscrapers, in which architecture is nothing more than space torn from the sky,” is how the artist describes the piece.
Some of the works are unfortunately being screened here in smaller versions of the originals. However, there is also one addition made specifically for the Futura show — an online exhibition by the independent Hipic project (Hipic.org), of images set up by Chinese artists that were gathered from around the world. Though most of the images seem to be from China, Prague’s Old Town Square also makes an appearance.
Ultimately, the most vital component of any city is its population, not its architecture. Accordingly, the best works in “Shanghype” are those that portray the flesh-and-blood people of Shanghai, reveling in all of life’s absurdity.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (2/04/2008):

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