China Quick-Fix

About

China Quick-Fix is a photographic exhibition that offers a special opportunity to see a less well known side of China up close. British artist Bill Aitchison has spent the last three years living in China documenting the sometimes ingenious, sometimes ramshackle, improvised repairs that are a feature of the Chinese urban landscape. Seen as a whole, this collection of images is considerably more than an eccentric collection of more or less sucessful DIY projects, it offers a rare and very humane insight into the common problems people face and the ways in which they overcome them.

Additionally, on the weekend before Chinese New Year, Aitchison will give a free talk and slide show. Drawing on his extensive archive, he will connect these humble quick-fixes that use plastic bottles, coat hangers and pieces of cardboard to a discussion of contemporary China and how it works. Rather than focussing exclusively upon the negative side of quick-fixes, he will consider what may be learnt from them and what their future might look like. For anyone interested in the emergence of China and what life there is like behind the modern facades of steel and glass skyscrapers, this is essential viewing and listening.