CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A nearly ubiquitous country-of-origin label seen on countless U.S. consumer goods is the subject of a new exhibition on view Oct. 16 through Nov. 14 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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The exhibition, “made in china: Erik Hemingway and Allison Warren,” explores the meaning of the phrase that appears on a practically endless stream of consumer goods marketed worldwide.
Hemingway, a professor of architecture at Illinois, and Warren, an instructor in the U. of I. School of Architecture, have organized the exhibition as part of an ongoing research project initiated during a residency in China during the summer of 2008 and continued there last summer.
Hemingway said the exhibition includes interactive components that will be used to inform the continuing data-collection and research process. The scholars plan to compile the results and publish them in book form.
The exhibition features a variety of installations, one of which is a series of video projections of urban Chinese street views – presented from three perspectives: vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The video images will be projected on a screen fabricated from common white-rice bags, stretched and sewn together.
Additional features of the exhibition:
• Nine video monitors displaying interviews conducted at Beijing Architectural Studio Enterprise, or B.A.S.E., founded and run by Los Angeles-based architects Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray. The interviews, with B.A.S.E. students and instructors, were conducted by Hemingway and Warren when they were in residence there.
• Drawings and disassembled, hanging bicycle parts, extended from the gallery ceiling. Hemingway said the bicycle parts represent the deconstruction of one of the eight most frequently mass-produced products made in China.
• Post-card questionnaires, which visitors may fill out to share their views and opinions with the researchers.
Along with Hemingway and Warren, the exhibition project team includes U. of I. graduate architecture students Stephanie Adamczyk, Winmay Au, Nicholas Brown, Matthew Cho, Montana Crady, Aeron Hodges, Chen Xi Hu, Alloy Kemp, Xu Nan Li, Limeng Lu, Tashio Marinez, Jonathan Reyes, Kurtis Rottunda, Mathew Strack, Owen Wang, Justin Wood, Lili Xu and Yiyuam Zou.
An opening reception for the exhibition is planned from 5-7 p.m. on Oct. 16 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago. For those unable to attend in person, the reception will be accessible live online.
I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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