Benjamin

OUTLINE

Intro
NR. 39 interview as fundament
Link it to other works of me and others
Conclusion

DRAFT

Intro Benjamin Li:

Benjamin Li (1985) is a Rotterdam based artist. He studied photography at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and graduated cum laude in 2013 with his project TE KOOP. Currently Li is doing his MDes in Media Design&Communication at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. Li's main work involves photography but he also works with video and is experienced in the use of old printing techniques. With his work Li comments on questions around identity, social behavior and online communication.

EARLY WORK: TE KOOP (2013-ongoing)

In his graduation project TE KOOP Li infiltrates online commodity markets e.g. Craigslist and Marktplaats. For TE KOOP Li makes a photo of a furniture or bike in a household set. Combined with a short with a short description he turns the photo into an advertisement. With respondents Li tries to start a conversation wether this about the product seemingly offered or a personal subject elicit from the respondent. In most cases the conversation stays around product offered, in some cases the conversation transforms in friendly conversation. Pictures and conversations are equally important, the pictures does not exist without the online content generated and visa versa. In exhibitions Li shows the pictures of the products, the conversations and screenshots of the original advertisement from the different commodity markets.

With TE KOOP Li investigate the meaning of promotional images, means of looking at images and the communication between a person who offers and potential buyers. Because Li infiltrates commodity markets in different countries comparisons between countries can be made on the use of language, the amount, length and content of responses as well as demographic differences in population.

Li got his inspiration for TE KOOP from his personal experiences on commodity markets and camouflage art. When Li was in Art School he started to sell and buy products. This was for him a stressful event. Questions like 'can I trust the people who I interact with on these commodity markets?' and 'Do I really get the product I seem to buy or is it a facsimile?'. At the same time Li came across the work of Desiree Palmen (1963), Liu Bolin (1973) and Maria Zendrera (1983). Camouflage plays an important role In the work of Palmen. She explores the notions where our bodies are seen and no longer seen. The purpose of camouflage is to draw our attention to other things in which being not detected is important for the individual. From the vantage point of security cameras Palmen explores the relationship of an individual and its surrounding physical, social and political (Pratt, 2007). This counts also for the Work of Bolin. He combines in his work performance art, photography and protest. Sites he chooses for his art work often carry symbols of China's Cultural revolution and changes in China since the fall of Mao Zedong's regime in 1976. According to Bolin, his works are metaphors for the feeling of anonymity and ostracism he encounters as a Contemporary artist in China (Artnet, 2015?). Zendrera departs from another point. Her point of departure is that sex sells. In Woman Not Included Zendrera makes use of the context Marktplaats where she investigate the nude body in connection to the selling of a product. The combination of personal experiences, camouflage art and the work of Zendrera are the ingredients for TE KOOP.

CURRENT WORK:

Current works of Li Nr. 39 With Rice & Tinder.

Nr. 39 with Rice is a project build around an event form an episode of Holland Got Talent in 2013. In the particular event Chinese contestant Xiao Wang is asked by jury member Gordon, Dutch celebrity known for his singing, if he is going to sing a song called 'Number 39 with Rice'. This in itself is a reference to the extended menus Chinese restaurants often have and the difficult names dishes carry. Due to that customers order by number instead of name. Wang tried to respond neutral, but you could see that he was uncomfortable with Gordon's approach (ref. video HGT) and this is confirmed by the responses on Gordon by the two other jury members and the audience at the set. Afterwards numerous people and organizations highlighted this event where some thought it was racist, others experienced it just as a harmless joke by Gordon who is know for that. Nevertheless the issue was highly covered in national media both in newspapers and TV-programmes. A group of Dutch-Chinese had the idea to open a more constructed debate by creating an offer where 39 dishes, in 39 Chinese restaurants are offered with 39% discount. This offer and the original event initiated Li's Nr. 39 with Rice-project.

In Nr. 39 with Rice Li goes to Chinese restaurants where he orders the Nr. 39-dish and take a photo of the dish's appearance. The pictures are taken with an Iphone and the flash on. By photographing the Nr. 39-dishes Li is researching if there is an order in the menus of Chinese restaurants. Are all Nr. 39-dishes the same or do the differ? Do Chinese restaurants in their menus have a classification system or not? By comparing the pictures Li can answer these questions.

It is not uncommon to have Chinese restaurant who sell only take-aways. To include these restaurants and their dishes also in the project Li wants to order their food, take it to an artificial setting i.e. not the restaurant setting and film himself eating the food. This refers to Mukbang. Mukbang, literally translates as 'eating broadcast' is a Korean phenomenon where Broadcast Jockeys (BJ) film themselves eating and interacting with an online audience. The audience itself can reward the BJ with balloons who represent the equivalent of 10 dollarcent. Mukbang became popular fast in South Korea. Reasons are the manny single households in South Korea, voyeurism and the sensuality food can have.

CURRENT WORK

NR 39-(PARTS OF) INTERVIEW

RELATION TO A LARGER CONTEXT

RESEARCH STRANDS

CONCLUSION