Contemporary Chinese arts on ageing and the poetics of accumulation

Abstract

This article explores two pieces of contemporary Chinese artworks, Waste Not (物尽其用, 2005) by mainland artist Song Dong and his mother Zhao Xiangyuan, and the stuffed animals as well as their outfits made by the famous Hong Kong writer Xi Xi. The article focuses on the theme of accumulation that these two works imply. The act of accumulation is essential to the neoliberalist subject, who is constantly accumulating, whether it be knowledge, experiences or networks, all of which are treated as instruments for capital accumulation. The passage of human life is easily dichotomized into two distinct processes: growing up is an accumulating process while growing old is one of deprivation and deterioration that are cast in the private and dark sphere. The two works of art discussed here complicate this ageism, and they also offer us new insights into the relations between things and humans. The candid presentation and making of things in these two works allow us to see more intimately what ageing means to the artists. The article explores how the arts, broadly defined, produced by and about the elderly can be incessantly growing, spreading, and proliferating. In this ageing society, these artworks inspire us to embrace a sense of becoming that is implied, but also often effaced, by ageing.