WORK / LIVE 干活 Zhao Haibo 赵海波

Among the activities that the worker/artist Zhao Haibo 赵海波 carried out during his years at the factory, this inquiry into the surface and texture of a very ordinary object – a water tank – has stayed in our memory.

Using the working time set aside for the Department’s activities, Zhao Haibo turned his attention to everyday objects, revealing their materiality and details with a natural artistic eye and an innate gift for observation. This inquiry into the water tank shows it clearly. Without any formal training, he reminds us how to look at the world and at the things around us, and to see them beyond their function. As Henri Matisse once said: “We should be able to look at things and forget their names.”