16.03.2020, On Nut BTS, Bangkok

PH & MH — Perhaps using a book we completed last year would illustrate but not answer that question in the fullest.

ArtDBL is a local (Shenzhen) art media outlet founded in 2015 that uses an online platform as a means of distribution. The content they cover is unique, the language is different from many other Chinese news platforms, and they have gained a considerable audience in just a few years. One of the most common platforms they use is WeChat, the most popular mobile app in China, which has a user base of almost one billion people and functions in many aspects of people’s lives: work, friend-making mobile payment, and publishing. In WeChat, there is a function called “Moments”, where you can see stories and posts coming from your friends’ circle. The app also offers a public account feature that gives businesses, organizations, and individuals the right to “publish”. You can apply for such a public account to post articles, promote a product, or write a private diary, etc. Of course, you are nonetheless monitored by the Party at all times, because, well, that’s what it does. So, if you are not careful, your account can be instantly deleted without any notice.

Our friend of ours referred us to ArtDBL in early 2019 and they came with the idea of compiling into a printed book all of the texts already published on their online platform. The texts are about the historical character of the city of Shenzhen in relationship to its local art scene. The title of the book translates into Shenzhen Dizziness, and we would like to copy here an excerpt of the foreword, which was written by the editor, Zhong Gang:

Shenzhen is a city whose multidimensionality deserves to be contemplated and researched. In this heterogeneous metropolis where a mixture of gambling style governance and global economy unite as one, time and space expand and collapse. All-encompassing and under the pressure of constant growth, the city evolves and lays bare its structures to the observer.

Unmistakably, the developments of the arts could not evade the “need-for-speed” model that is deeply rooted in the logic of the city. Fast paced economic growth, outsourced production, duplication, air freight and maritime transportation, along with the other sequelae investigated in this book, all emerge as the symptoms of the last 30 years of progress.

Looking at Shenzhen from a political and economical standpoint, we can consider it as being “particular”. We can also examine how this “particularity” contributed to boost the city’s mode of development from an art perspective. Shenzhen isn’t your typical art metropolis in comparison to well-established, or say, traditional cultural hubs: it is relentlessly growing and mutating. With the influence of the heavily promoted Hong Kong Art Basel and its strong market stimulation, Shenzhen itself has become a burgeoning art market. Once tranquil, then suddenly frantic under the presence of the art biennale, and then shifting again towards more diversified ways of art making, Shenzhen’s artistic production has been gradually shining overseas while nevertheless being modeled and carried away by capital.

What we found really interesting in this book is how personal each account of the city is. It illustrates well how several artists have been dealing with the city, and how they navigate their art practice within it. There is also a clear awareness that, thus far, Shenzhen’s art scene isn’t like Beijing nor Shanghai.

The text in the book is set in a font size larger than those in most Chinese paperbacks, we have done so to make the reader feel a bit uneasy, but this is not a case for purposefully impending legibility. Books in China published by regular Chinese publishers are more or less all typeset the same way, at similar sizes, and with rather crazy wide leadings (granted that Chinese is perhaps easier to read with a larger leading). The arrangement of text in a page isn’t something that people want to consider. Millions of books have their text typeset in the same way – as long as the text is comfortable to read, nothing else is needed. A lot of knowledge developed in the West about layout-making / grid-making did not transfer to China until recently. With all the digital platforms available at hand (made without typographical consideration), advocating for good typography in say, a printed novel, isn’t really going anywhere. 

Printed on the cover is the two-word title “Shenzhen Dizziness”, which is composed of 4 Chinese characters 深 Shēn，圳 Zhèn，眩 Xuàn，晕 Yūn. But we have broken the title by typesetting Shēn (half of Shenzhen) and Xuàn (dizzy) in a black serif font, while Zhèn (other half of Shenzhen) and Yūn (dizzy) are set in a condensed sans-serif and printed in yellow. We automatically read by associating the font styles together, and if we do so it reads XuànShēn YūnZhèn, which means nothing specific. One has to force the reading backwards in order to read the title properly, a puzzle rather easy to solve for any Chinese readers. The funny part is that the people’s reading of the title is indeed influenced by this intentional mishap. Through this visual dislocation we echo the theme of the book. In addition to this, we also proposed to include at the end of the book a small visual archive which includes images and texts from earlier publications and articles that focus on Shenzhen’s art circle. This section wasn’t part of the original brief, but we thought that some visuals would help building a kind of registry of sorts…

The book was published last August (2019) and was sold out in less than a month – something we truly didn’t expect. Kinda nice to not only to see so much support for indie publishing from readers, but also to realize that designers can own a bit of their projects. As we see it, the value of the book itself is greater than its design, but without the design or the designer’s contribution, who puts together the content into one physical entity, it is harder to capture the essence of several scattered online articles as a whole.


pic. 5 — China, Guangdong province, Shenzhen, Dafen oil painting village, Dafen Village is one of the largest production centers for the oil painting market. 


pic. 6 — Book spreads from Shenzhen Dizziness.


pic. 7 — There are five different thumbnails on the spine of the book at the location where publisher logos are usually inserted.