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THE ARTISTS
Zhou Yanfeng, sculptor (left), and Qin Anxin, multimedia student
Dates active: Oct 12 - Nov 21
THE PROJECT
Many people simply complain if they feel their lives are in a rut, but do nothing to remedy the problem. When Zhou Yanfeng felt that way five years ago, he recorded the mundanity of his daily existence to galvanise himself and find a solution. For three consecutive days, Zhou, who worked for a design company, noted every trivial action. "I was shocked. I was literally repeating my life every day. I could almost see my life unchanged 10 years down the line. I was scared," he said.
So, a year later he quit his job and began studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. When the 31-year-old sculptor joined the "Between the Fifth and Sixth Ring Roads" project in Beijing seven months ago, he decided to apply the same methodology to the migrant workers in Songlanpu village.
Zhou, often accompanied by multimedia student Qin Anxin, observed and recorded a day in the lives of 10 people - a courier, a white-collar worker, a gatekeeper, a street cleaner, a car cleaner, a masseur in a public bathhouse, and vendors of steamed buns, nuts, fruit, and pancakes.
The courier impressed Zhou most. "He was literally running against time. I followed him for 13 hours, and he only had a sausage for lunch and a pancake for dinner.
"He told me he already had a chronic stomach illness, so I suggested he should work less or he would spend all his savings in the hospital. But he said it's better to have the funds to cure the disease rather than be too poor to afford treatment."
People reacted in different ways when Zhou and Qin showed them their notes. The nut seller said he never realized he accepted money so many times in a single day, and the fruit vendor, in her early 20s, was shocked to see how boring her life was - the only thing she did besides selling fruit was play with her phone constantly. "It reminded me of my own life long ago. Hopefully she will find the life she wants," Zhou said.
The white collar worker, an electrical engineer who earned more than 10,000 yuan ($1,611) a month, was the best paid of the 10 subjects. However, his family is not wealthy and cannot come up with any financial support, leaving him unable to afford an apartment in Beijing at an average cost of 30,000 yuan per square meter.
Also, the family didn't have Beijing hukou, the permanent resident's permit, which meant their daughter wouldn't have the same access to education as local children. In the end, they moved to Xi'an in Shaanxi province where the cost of property is much lower and hukou is far easier to obtain.
"To be honest, I'm a little jealous. I believe they will have a much easier life in Xi'an. If I weren't making art, I would probably have left this city, too," Zhou said.
Zhou Yanfeng and Qin Anxin talked to Tang Yue.
