Frosty

Arrow Factory's latest offering. come by and get some cheap toilet paper, or salt, or washing powder while it lasts!

李景湖《雪人》 李景湖的《雪人》是一件特定现场的装置作品。他以一种轻松的心态，用成卷的卫生纸在空间里堆积起一 座硕大的“雪人”，这个“雪人”将在一个月的时间里随着货品的不断售出而在人们的视野中逐渐消失。将箭厂空间转变为一个出售食盐、洗衣粉和廉价低端卫生纸 的临时商店，通过一种短期经济关系的建立，《雪人》触及了本地日常生活用品的定价、购买和销售这一错综复杂的过程，通过在一个日益活跃的社区商业环境中引 入郊区批发市场的价值系统，从而达到渗透并适度扰乱当地经济的目的。 李景湖继续其早期创作中对日常物品形态特征的关注，在这里仅选用白颜色的日常消耗品，并将它们塑造成雪人这 一对他来说有些异想天开、充满童趣的形状，而实际上就在几天前艺术家刚刚见到了平生中的第一场大雪。就像在现实生活中人们并不指望雪人能永久保存一样，李 景湖靠隔壁店主的帮助在一个月当中出售这些商品，直至“雪人”全部消失。巧合的是，他所购买的卫生纸品牌恰好叫做“天天见”，这个短句道出了这件作品观念 的两个边缘：雪人短暂而稍纵即逝的存在，以及每天与这些生活消耗品的无奈遭遇。

李景湖在广东东莞生活和工作，那里是导致中国“恶”名远扬的“世界加工厂”之一，他的艺术实践基于 自己在这座南方工业城市中的日常经验与历练。在亲眼目睹了该地区发生的所有变化—从改革开放直到当下的经济萎缩，李景湖对于周遭普通市民的日常生存模式保 持浓厚的兴趣，他的创作手法一直在寻求弥合艺术与生活之间的分野， 而箭厂胡同对于艺术家此次作品的实践似乎是一个非常适合的场所。

Li Jinghu Snowman 2010.03.20-04.20 Snowman by Li Jinghu is a site-specific installation and event that takes a lighthearted approach towards the consumption and distribution of everyday consumer products. Using everyday items such as packaged toilet paper, Li creates a larger than life size snowman, which will steadily ‘melt’ over time as the items are sold off at bargain prices. At once sculptural installation and interactive event, Snowman explores the intricacies of pricing, buying and selling of everyday goods within a localized setting while transforming Arrow Factory into a temporary shop for salt, washing powder and cheap low-grade toilet paper. Effectively relocating a wholesale market from the remote outskirts of town to the city center, Snowman attempts to infiltrate and disrupt the local economy by introducing wholesale prices amongst a growing retail environment. Taking up his earlier concerns with the formal qualities of everyday objects, here Li selects only white color products and sculpts them into snowmen—a whimsical and imaginary form for the artist, whose first encounter with snowfall occurred just days before he began his installation. However, as in real life, snowmen are not intended to last. The artist has engaged the assistance of a neighboring shopkeeper to sell the items everyday for approximately one month until the snowmen gradually disappear. Coincidentally, the brand name of the toilet paper Li purchased is called 天天见“Tian Tian Jian” (literally ‘seen everyday’), a phrase which speaks to the work’s two conceptual edges: the fleeting, ephemeral presence of snowmen and unfaltering daily encounters with these common products.

Living and working in Dongguan, Guangdong, one of China’s infamous ‘world factories’, Li Jinghu’s artistic practice is highly informed by his own upbringing, everyday experiences and imaginations within and beyond this southern industrial city. Having witnessed the changes that have occurred in the region—from reform and opening until the most recent economic downturn—Li has developed a keen interest in the patterns of daily existence and the lives of ordinary citizens that surround him. Arrow Factory’s hutong is a fitting location for an artist who has grown accustomed to working away from the art centers of Beijing and Shanghai, and whose practice seeks to melt away the borders between art and life.