Negotiable Values

About

Negotiable Values invites seven artists from the UK and China to create works in response to idea of ethics and moral choices. Developed out of a dialogue with Yan Yan, Director of 501 Arts Space, Chongqing, the exhibition brings together artists' works which explore the notion of advancement and raises questions about the price of progress. What has been lost in the pursuit of a better life? What are the value judgements we make? What do we perceive to be betterment? Negotiable Values takes the internal experience of and international consciousness of China's development as its starting point. Since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, China has embraced aspects of Western culture but we are also now seeing the influence of China and Asia on the West. China is also presenting an alternative to the social capitalism. Urbanisation and modernisation is taking place in China at a phenomenal pace, leaving little time to question the process of change or its implications. Whilst the current pace of change in China is more extreme than in most countries the notion of progress and the human endeavour to strive a better life, which in some instances is bound to economic betterment, can be found across the globe. At Chinese Arts Centre we will be presenting a selection of works with the full show being presented when it tours to 501 Arts Space, Chongqing, China in Summer 2010.