Heart to Heart by Yin Xiuzhen is currently on at the Hayward Gallery, part of London’s South Bank Centre. I was interested to see it as I have myself experienced the rapid urban development in the artist’s homeland, China.
This installation of an airport luggage carousel greets you on entry with models of different cities made from textiles sitting in suitcases. The carousel itself is covered in garments, the whole overshadowed by a fabric jet.
The artist uses pre-worn clothing as her medium: what we wear, the skin over our skin, reflecting too on globalisation throughout the garment industry.
I admired the making, the process and dedication to creating these pieces. They reminded me of the paper models made to burn at funerals, items that people would need in the afterlife. It almost felt like an act of collective grieving after an accident.
Collective Subconscious (Blue), a minibus affectionately known in Beijing as “a little loaf of bread“, has been extended into a caterpiller-like vehicle using over 400 pieces of used clothing. There’s a cosiness to it, like the Catbus in My Neighbour Totoro.
A recording of a popular song, Beijing, Beijing plays inside evoking a period of idealism in the 1990s. The original idea was that people could sit inside and reflect on the changes that have taken place over intervening years.
There is plenty more to see, most of which left me with an overwhelming impression of melancholy, of looking back to the past.