Zeitgeist and Marketplace (Work in Progress)

The picture material for the work came from social media where Londoners sell second-hand items or subletting rooms. Looking at the broad collection of belongings/rooms for sale/rent, images of the vendors appear to materialise. A student, selling a guitar and textbooks and another person offering whiskey and a designer leather jacket. Each image triggers Sophie Calle-esque voyeurism: who is the vendor? What are the stories behind all those poor-quality, mediocre photos of used things? Could a person be defined by the objects we buy and sell?

The nervous thrill of observing people's private lives through the social media’s ‘peephole’, which keenly tracks the daily changes, mixes with the moral dilemma of plundering real life for the sake of art which is not immune to the voyeurism embedded in our online culture. The author uses archival photographs and collages in a Dadaistic contrast to the famous paintings. He explores the relationship between consumption and identity while faithfully documenting and analysing real life, as well as provoking discussions of privacy and boundaries.

Haohui Liu is part of »Guest Room: Simon Baker & Aden Vincendeau«.

Check out his Artist Feature Great Celebration.