In restored train, artist shows ‘new hand of God’
Print Edition
DURING last week’s frenetic Shanghai Art Fair, I could not get to one of the off-site projects, “City of Amnesia,” installed by Shanghai-based artist Qiu Anxiong. Qiu’s project was co-initiated by Aimee Lin, the editor of ArtReview Asia, and West Bund Art Fair director Zhou Tiehai. The diverse art and design projects were presented within an immense tent at the event’s main site, as well as at various public places in and around the West Bund.
It was four days after the closure of the fair, on a dreary wet day that I came upon Qiu’s monumental work, a dilapidated train on the northernmost corner of West Bund, between Ruining Road and the promenade of the Huangpu River. The train was wedged between an abandoned building and a defunct railway track. While luxury apartments, art galleries and museums have been cropping up at a rapid pace in the surrounding area, the train had been sitting motionless with complete disregard of time. Qiu, who has worked on locomotive-related projects in the past, took the opportunity to revive this massive machine.
When I entered the train, I was pleased to run into Qiu himself, who took the time to discuss his concept as we wandered through entire length of the train, from the caboose to the locomotive.
“This train may seem old and decrepit, but not long ago it was a sign of progress and a symbol of China’s hopes for the future.”
To set the stage for the ideas he wanted to convey, the artist had to conduct a thorough cleaning and restoration of the train. “It was a mess when I first came upon it. There was dirt and debris everywhere,” he explained. I saw that every inch of the interior had been swept and tidied.
The result is not that of shiny cleanliness but an ambience of nostalgia. Qiu flipped down a seat from the wall for me in the stark interior of the cargo area by the caboose and we sat for a moment.
“This was how the majority of Chinese experienced travel. One was fortunate to get a seat,” he pointed to the tiny wooden slab we were sitting on. “The rest of the passengers had to stand or find a place to sit on the floor of the cramped compartment,” he noted.
Inside, there were 20 projectors mounted by the windows which showed a rapid-fire succession of short clips that Qiu took from the Internet. From public announcements, videos of a Victoria Secret’s lingerie show, and images of war and destruction, it was total visual overload.
And that is exactly the effect Qiu set out to achieve. He believes modern society has fostered a sense of amnesia. We have new information and new images to fill every second of the day, so often we cannot remember traces from yesterday, the artist observed. To test his point, I tried to recall what I had for breakfast the previous day and drew a blank.
“I cannot relay every aspect of history or the past. But I want to remind people that there was a past, some which should not go forgotten.” As we walked from the back of the train toward the front, I saw images that could not be ignored. I felt chills watching slow moving image of an airplane slicing through the World Trade Center. I viewed tanks and soldiers marching off to war. In another window, there was an image of a jumbo jet pulling a fighter plane connected by a cable. Qiu pointed to this image as he compared it with the image on next window of Michelangelo’s famous “The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel.”
“This is the new hand of God,” he noted enigmatically.
As we disembarked, a gust of engine steam puffed as if on cue. The train platform was enveloped in a layer of silent fog. We do not always choose what we remember. Memory creeps upon us, in moments when we least expect it.
Qiu’s “City of Amnesia” is on view until Wednesday.
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