Waste Not - Song Dong

‘Wu jin qi yong’ is what Chinese artist Song Dong titles his latest edition of work currently carpeting the floor of the curve gallery of the Barbrican. Loosely translated as ‘Waste not’, the categorically curated piece, comprising of over 10,000 everyday possessions, is homage to his mother, Zhao Xiangyuan. With China’s drift away from socialism and toward the ‘restoration of capitalism’ in 1966, at the hands of Chairman Mao, Zhao Xiangyuan saw no other option than to be parsimonious.

Hording has always been an obligatory way of life in hard times and seems to leave the individual with the need to save everything for future use. This is undeniably apparent when viewing the vast collection of items before you, such as empty toothpaste tubes, drinks cans and broken pots and pans, some of which I fail to see as reusable other than by recycling. However, Song Dong was motivated to make his mother’s obsession an art piece due to a family tragedy, the loss of his father in 2002. Zhao Xiangyuan descended into a deep depression and began to attempt to fill the void left in her life with material possessions, regardless of their use. It was then that Song Dong suggested that they used her obsession as an art form and outlet for her grief and states that “It gave my mother a space to put her memories and history in order”.

I had anticipated that many of the Chinese articles would seem unfamiliar to me, which was certainly true upon arriving at the exhibition to be greeted by an array of foreign toys and tools. Yet as I made my way thorough the space, I was surprised by the scale of recognisable packaging, that speaks a lot for the globalisation of the commerical industry.

One thing that Song Dong does very successfully through his piece is compel the viewer to think about the amount they waste. Walking past the multiple objects laid out before me, I am instantly aware of the amount that I toss to the landfill. ‘Waste not’ has a relevance to us all, the exhibit forces you to question your influence on the environment by throwing things away. Perhaps we should question what we do with items that we believe to be done with, and ask ourselves whether they really need replacing.