Introduction
In March 07 I traveled to Shezhen, China to sort out production for a series of paintings. The factory painters were mostly young and all talented. Like 1980's art students they wore concert t-shirts, took frequent smoke breaks, and played alternative music very loud from a tinny CD player. All of the painters were either friends or relatives of one another.
The factories themselves looked less warehouse and more apartment building. The office of the factory I visited had not only wall to wall carpeting but wall to ceiling. It was a plush environment.
The Da Fen district, where all of the oil painting factories reside, is marked by a giant, (very communist) statue of a hand holding a paintbrush. Surreal doesn't quite express the region. The images shown do not depict the artwork I was working on, but rather, the artwork these factories all too often produce.
