Pop Goes China
Timezone 8 is a mélange of café, bookstore and artspace. Crammed into this space is a small, but amazing exhibition of photographs taken by Chris Makos, Warhol's personal photographer in 1982.

Makos travelled to China with Warhol and a ragtag group of others at the behest of a Chinese art collector. It's an interesting concept, given that since 1972, Warhol had been producing images of Chairman Mao, often similar to the portrait hanging in Tian'anmen Square. However, it's hard to tell what the focus is here--Warhol, or Makos' experience of China. Unfortunately, since Warhol has such a famous face and is such a well-known, prolific artist, the actual photographer gets lost behind his dazzling fame.

The show is brief, just six images in all, featuring a mix of iconic Chinese images, some with Warhol and some without. At times, Makos manages to make Warhol appear as an ordinary tourist. A picture of Warhol standing on the Great Wall, for instance, or next to a woman in a Mao suit, evokes any of our own holiday snapshots. Another photo shows Warhol imitating Tai Chi moves and looking gauche and inelegant.

Other images show a quickly-disappearing China. We see an old black car drive past a hutong in Beijing and a department store which lacks the glossy brand ads to which we are so accustomed. However, Makos also manages to capture a China that is familiar to us all--the curious stares of the people on the Great Wall, and the classic tourist shot of Tian'anmen Square lit up at night.

Makos has managed to create a record of the pre-capitalist culture of China, a culture about which Andy Warhol once said, "I like this culture better than our culture."

Elyse Singleton

Details

When: Through Sunday, Sept. 7
Add: 108, Bldg 3, 50 Moganshan Lu 莫干山路50号3号楼108
Tel: 6227-1467