WORK / LIVE 干活 Pei Yanchao 裴艳超

The WORK / LIVE process was practically born when we noticed Pei Yanchao 裴艳超 playing with the grease gun during short pauses in his work routine. Watching him shape the grease into playful forms, we started chatting with him and getting to know his life. The conversations led to a more defined piece on a wooden frame.

Despite our efforts, the grease could only be preserved frozen, so in the end we asked Zhao Tao to cover its surface with foam: under one of Zhao Tao’s foam mountains now lies Pei Yanchao’s grease landscape. This is typical of the department’s way of working, where new creations and processes often change and transform existing pieces, and sometimes pieces are lost. It is all part of an organic process.

Some of the things Pei Yanchao said during our conversations:

“It’s all working in the day and living in the night. Life is so short.”

“Working is to have a better life, and a better life is to have what you want. 今天有了这个，明天又想要那个。 Today you want this, tomorrow you want that. You need money to have this and that.”

“I want the basics: a washing machine to wash clothes, a bike instead of walking.”

“I prefer non-material happiness: my family, my child. Sometimes I get frustrated with my child if I spend more than a day at home, but then I’m so happy to go home knowing my child will come to greet me at the door.”

“To balance this insatiable material desire fed by society, I try to step back and think about details, to be aware of my actions and thoughts, from the simplest to the most complicated.”

“I want to make mountains, because they are formed by nature and not sculpted by people – 风吹日晒雨淋, by wind, sun and rain. 站在山上或看山有一种放松的感觉. The pressure in the city is too high. Looking at the city from a mountain I feel relaxed, because I’ve got away from it – 我摆脱了这个地方.”