DSL Collection

"While producing art works, I often angel sexuality to explore the problems of femininity and woman as part of the society. In Ladies, I chose the nightclub's ladies' room where the female workers from the club come to do -various activities. The scene showed a reality beyond one's imagination. The scene reveals a very serious problem in society, and the problem will have its effects in history. On the surface, what I shot was about the state of women, but what I cared more was the social class behind scenes and how viewers read the work from cultural, historical and economic perspective. I chose the video to shoot this work, and the moving image expressed clearly the concept of time and space and content."

Cui Xiuwen


Not particularly much to be seen here: some girls in front of a mirror readjusting dress and makeup. A much less stylish woman doing some clean up amongst them.

These two images are stills from the 6? 12? video Ladies Room by Cui Xiuwen. Trained as a painter, she has been focusing on themes of sexuality and gender early on, once shocking her audience with paintings of naked men whose genitals she particularly emphasized; something even more uncommon in China than in the West. At the occasion of a dance night out in a posh Beijing club, she realized that there is another side to the beautiful glamour girls on the dance floor. ?Like hell in heaven, or heaven in hell.? as she puts it. Nevertheless, she felt that oil painting, her main artistic medium so far, would not be sufficient to express what she wanted to communicate. Shortly afterwards Cui came into contact with shooting video and had found her technique. Hiding a camera in the ladies? room of an expensive Beijing night-club, she simply filmed the women in front of the mirror. They rearrange or change clothing, check out their appearance, admire themselves, re-do makeup and exchange gossip. It is only towards the end of the video that it becomes apparent that what seems to be ordinary girls enjoying an evening out in fact are prostitutes having a break from work. They also tuck away their money in bras and briefs, call their customers to arrange for new dates and catch their breath before returning to the clubroom.

Cui does not comment on the scenes but offers a rare insight on one particular facet of the much-acclaimed China boom. Like Zhang Dali?s head down suspended plaster casts of migrant workers in Chinese Offspring the women in the lavatory do the lowest of services to those who profit most of the streams of money in contemporary China. And by doing so, add to the glamor of the scene.
Christof Buettner