⬤ — Humans,
Nanjing Museum
Humans (Can be Artists) was curated and commissioned by Bill Aitchison for the Last Minute Live Art Festival, Nanjing Museum, Nanjing China
In Humans I was the artist using other bodies to speak of the violence of wage-labour and contemporary slavery, by creating a scenario where art students in Nanjing, China were ‘bought’ [1] by an audience member and tied to them at a distance of 1.3 metres for the duration of the artwork.
[1] There was no exchange of currency beyond people paying an admission to the show, once in the show they negotiated with each artist whether they could purchase them as an artwork. Once attached the artist was obliged to talk in detail about the importance of their practice. The initial provocation suggested artists go home with their buyer and spend the night attached to them as an artwork. For obvious ethical reasons this did not eventuate, however 6 months later the students performed a variation of this provocation, walking their buyer home before detaching and walking back to the gallery.