Chinese Video Artists Explore Industrial Decline Through 'Northern Remnants' Aesthetics

A scholarly article published on October 15, 2024, in ARTMargins Online examines how contemporary multimedia artists and filmmakers from China have used moving images since the early 21st century to depict urban-industrial decline in northern China. This artistic focus contrasts with the economic boom in the Pearl River Delta, driven by technological investments and globalization following Deng Xiaoping-era reforms. Northern manufacturing zones have seen the collapse of labor-driven socialized production, leaving once-vibrant factory complexes as ghostly shells. Artists Wang Bing (born 1967), Wang Mowen (born 1989), and Cao Fei (born 1978) reference cultural memory through visual presentations of mid-20th century socialist monuments. Their work highlights a regional phenomenon where divestment in industrial production has led to 'northern remnants,' characterized aesthetically by rust, melancholy, and slowness. The article appears in ARTMargins, Volume 13, Issue 3, pages 56-77, and is available via MIT Press under subscription-only access. It analyzes the temporalities shaped by decline, framing these artistic practices as a counterpoint to southern prosperity. The moving image serves as a tool to capture these transformations, emphasizing the broader social and aesthetic impacts of deindustrialization in northern China.