MARTIN CORDIANO Visual Artist
Greywashing
2013
Installation
Household Paint, trestle legs table
Dimensions Variable
Greywashing delves into the notion of censorship by exploring the Hutongs: remaining constructions of the old Beijing where people with low-income live, comprised by alleys all painted in grey to unify the way they look. Workers engrave rubber stamps on the city walls illegally to offer their services, however they are subsequently painted over by the government leaving the city covered in grey patches. Using this same visual language to echo this phenomena, an unusual advertisement was made: ‘Artist/Tourist’ and a UK phone number in order to be part of the socio-economic circuit. The gesture takes place during a week being a process executed every night (for being illegal) just to notice that by the morning most of the rubbers were covered in gray.
As a result of this action, Greywashing is an installation comprised by paintings in different sizes and in different range of greys. The installation underlines the effort and determination required to paint over all the stamps created by the workers to put into evidence censoring and governmental control. The gesture becomes political, and despite being created in a particular context, it talks about suppression in a broader sense. It works as a symbol for a government to silent voices on one hand and demonstrate their authority on the other: an endless socio-economic circuit generated by two antagonistic forces. The work evidences the process of manufacturing the censorship while the colour works as a metaphor for something very difficult to determine, an adjective for places of indetermination (grey areas) both as territory and as a concept, to reinforce the position in which the viewer stands in the socio-political system.
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable
“Greywashing” 2013 Installation Household Paint, trestle legs table Dimensions Variable