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Portable cities
YIN XIUZHEN
Portable City: Jia Yu Guan, 2009
Courtesy Beijing Commune
“While Beijing has been the focus of inspiration for much of Yin Xiuzhen’s work, documenting the process of deconstruction and reconstruction, Yin has since installed her work worldwide, examining cultural changes in different locales. Investigating the repercussions of globalization, with the massive changes brought about by mass transportation and communication, where physical distances have decreased by massive leaps and bounds—she examines how the cultural fabric that identifies individual cultures are either reinforced or broken down by change. In addition to examining the effects of globalization, Yin also draws heavily from her personal experiences. In her work, Portable Cities, Yin recreates her personal images/memories of a city, and experiences of ‘living out of a suitcase’, into miniaturized cities.”
YIN XIUZHEN
Portable City: Melbourne, 2009
Courtesy Beijing Commune
“Taking found fabric and clothing from the city in question (i.e. Vancouver, Berlin etc.), Yin sews together little buildings, bridges, and greenscapes inside suitcases, manufacturing transportable cities. With landmark buildings recreated on a miniaturized scale in the likes of gingham cloth, corduroy, and cotton, and recorded soundscapes of the city in question, the pieces are at once humorous, nostalgic and poignant. With their hand-crafted appeal and use of old clothing, they infuse the anonymity of city-living with the personal. While globalization and the increased openness of China has allowed the possibility for more people like Yin to travel and visit all the cities within her suitcases, ironically it has also meant that the cities themselves have incurred a certain proclivity to becoming increasingly indistinguishable. Confronting the notions of increased homogenization of cultures and environments, versus the conflicting stratifications of wealth distribution and access to commodities and exchange, Yin’s work brings about questions concerning the desire for rapid modernization and globalization.”
YIN XIUZHEN
Portable City: Shenzhen, 2008
Courtesy Beijing Commune
Wellington, coffee city
“This tea towel, probably from the mid-1960s provides a coffee guide to Wellington, complete with descriptions of the type of food served in each café.”
Wellington café culture + media gallery
“Wellington’s café culture is today an integral part of its identity as a city. This culture began in the 1930s with the arrival of the milk bar, followed closely by coffee houses in the 1950s. After a period of decline in the 1960s and 70s, the city’s café scene has grown in spectacular fashion over the last 20 years…”
Cafés and civic life have long interested scholars of space and culture, and Wellington is considered one of the best cities in the world for drinking coffee. Midnight Espresso, located stumbling distance from my office, is where I most often procure the flat whites (and cheese scones) that sustain my work. But after seeing this strangely fascinating coffee log, I’ve been careful to make sure most of that money goes to our holiday fund instead.
Street seen
Louis Faurer, “Accident, New York City,” 1952. Deborah Bell Photographs, New York / © Mark Faurer
Street Seen: The Psychological Gesture in American Photography, 1940–1959
Milwaukee Art Museum, January 30–April 25, 2010
“[The] graphically charged and emotionally engaging photographs evoke the excitement and unease that characterized the era, as popular culture, the arts, and everyday life underwent substantial, dramatic changes. They not only emphasize the candid experience of being an anonymous individual amongst an impersonal, fast-moving crowd but confront the viewer with the material presence of their photographs.”
(via)