Arts: The Whimsical Circus of China?s Bike Peddlers

Now playing: Slate V, a video-only site from the world's leading online magazine. Visit Slate V at www.slatev.com.
Behold The Whimsical Circus of China's Bike Peddlers By Jennifer Lai Posted Thursday, Feb 28, 2013, at 04:00 PM ET A few days after Alain Delorme arrived in Shanghai for his first art residency, he realized something: He had vertigo. But rather than focusing on the dazzling heights of the skyscrapers and dizzying crowds, his work "Totems" focuses on the often-unnoticed migrants struggling to transport their towering cargo loads across the rapidly developing city. "I wanted … to focus on the individual," Delorme writes via e-mail. For him, the ever-growing piles in the foreground serve to effectively echo the "incessant expansion of the modern buildings in the background." In "Totems," antlike workers balance often-bizarre wares, such as flowers, furniture, balloons, and even tires, on their bikes and carts as they weave precariously through the streets. And if these images look like completely unimaginable, impossible feats of gravity, that's because they are. The migrants' loads have been digitally retouched and purposefully exaggerated to draw attention to the symbolism within Delorme's work. "Totems are usually considered special symbols with spiritual significance: Here, they can illustrate how objects are worshipped by consumer society—specifically, objects that are often 'Made in China,' " writes Delorme, pointing out that the loads are often made up of identical and interchangeable objects produced in mass quantities. "The migrant seems, at first, almost like a hero for being able to carry such an impressive pile. But soon, we get the feeling that the objects almost swallow him, and that he's submerged by the multiplication of the same object—as consumers often are." Manipulating the photos was no ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate A Cheer or Two for Sequestration Is the South Still Racist? Mike White on Why Men Won't Watch Women on TV	Advertisement
Manage your newsletters subscription: Unsubscribe | Forward to a Friend | Advertising Information
Ideas on how to make something better? Send an e-mail to slatenewsletter@nl.slate.com. Copyright 2011 The Slate Group | Privacy Policy The Slate Group | c/o E-mail Customer Care | 1350 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 410 | Washington, D.C. 20036