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| Pearl Lam's letter to a French Artist |
| By Artzinechina |
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Editorial Note: “We Are the World,” an installation created by the Shanghai-based video artist Qiu Anxiong, was exhibited at Pear Lam`s Contrasts Gallery in September 2008. About 300 pieces of small bull terriers and one giant dog constitute the exhibition. This installation exhibition was based on a dispute between several young Chinese artists and a French artist. The French artist hired the young artists to make 1,000 50 cm tall sculptures of sitting dogs, and five 3.5 meter tall dog sculptures for his project, entitled: “Lost Dog.” But many unhappy episodes occurred in the process of the production after both sides signed a contract. The workers were not paid in full; the contract was “lost” during a meeting when both sides got into a dispute. Qiu Anxiong then decided to create his own exhibition to discuss the relationships between the Chinese artists who worked as producers of the art work, and the idea of art and capitalism. Meanwhile, the French artist was outraged when he saw the exhibition. He wrote a letter to Pearl Lam, the owner of the Contrasts Gallery. What follows are the letters between them.
 ear Madam,
First, I would like to introduce myself.
My name is XX, and I am the artist who, for the last two decades, spent his life in working, day after day on the concept of "the lost dog".
Last year, the Gallery "Enrico Navarra" has ordered the production of my art to a Chinese workshop that I had to follow up personally. The process has proven to be a difficult one, I should admit. The financial settlement between both parties has been finalized.
Today I am outraged to discover the nearly exact imitation of the same order, in other words my own work signed by a Chinese person represented under the umbrella of your gallery.
 I wish to believe that it has been a misunderstanding and I would like to seek your assistance in solving the issue with an amicable approach. As we both know, this affair represents an absolute plagiarism, slandering and spoiling the art of a living artist.
Considering the gravity and urgency of this matter, I am requesting a face to face meeting at your earliest convenience.
Thanks for your consideration and looking forward to your prompt reply.
With my best regards,
XX
ear XX,
Firstly I must apologize for the late reply, I overlooked the email until this afternoon when I saw the reminder from my assisdent to reply to your email.
 Secondly, I believe you have a complete misunderstanding of Qiu Anxiong's installation "We Are The World". The concept behind this installation, unlike your "lost dog" project, is not about the artist himself but to demonstrate the Chinese perspective when the West defines China as their manufacturing competitor but when in truth the West has been taking advantage of cheap labour and benefiting from low cost production. This installation also addresses immediate world concerns as to the relationship between product and art, capitalism and labour force and how does commercialism affect creativity? This is a significant topic which has been commonly discussed amongst the art world. Thus Qiu decided to express his point of view through his installation which illustrates the complete process of how these "dogs" have been manufactured then how these dogs are transformed into an expensive decoration when they arrive in the West.
This concept was a reaction to the incident that occurred between the young artists and yourself. What the young artists had gone through during the commissioning of these dogs inspired Qiu to discuss issues of foreign powers arriving in China and commissioning cheap labour to make works thus gaining the extra margins, impossible if produced at home. Also how these Western aggressors bullied the Chinese laborers to consider making no profit or even a loss just to avoid any problems. In reality the only people who profit from these arrangements are the Westerners as they are the one who choose China to be their manufacturers due to the lower production cost. It is the Chinese labourers who are abused and taken advantage of. It is my understanding that many unpleasant incidents occurred during the commissioning of these dogs, the contract somehow disappeared, the young artists repeatedly changed the mould as there was not a 1:1 sample, then finally they were told to cut their price due to alleged bad quality. Eventually this news spread around the Shanghai art world inspiring artists and writers like Qiu Anxiong and Mian Mian to create works discussing these problems.
 Thirdly I am really surprised when you mention the "nearly exact imitation of the same order" - the concept of this installation is vastly different from yours! These dogs are only tools used to describe this concept - this is akin to the image of the Mona LIsa or Warhol's Marilyn being used in other artworks to illustrate an artist's intention. Furthermore the dogs resemble pitt bull terriers which are all more or less the same looking.
Fourthly, each of us reacts very differently to situations especially when this refers to the Chinese and Westerners. Chinese people do not like to confront or to act as victims, therefore the young artists never solicited help but silently tried to resolve their own problems. When Qiu saw what happened he reacted and created this exhibition, discussing the different social relationships which can affect artistic creativity. But then a Westerner reacted very differently. For example when you saw the exhibition, your reaction was to immediately invade my booth at the Art Fair bullying the girls and demanding a solution, these are only junior staff who knew nothing of this. Then followed the curator from UCCA told Yang Fudong that Qiu must apologise or be banned from all exhibitions in the West. I wondered whether such threat should be considered as suppression? And whether this really came from Jerome Sans who had not even cared to find out the concept behind "We Are The World". I understand that it is much easier to be a "victim", to be able to solicit protection from the museum and the French Government. But tell me now who is the real victim? And do you think the Chinese art world will respect such behavior? How much more Western aggression and dominance could we forebear?
 Qiu Anxiong has proven himself as one of the great young artist of his era. His recent work, the train in Basel was raved about by all the critics and celebrated internationally. His creativity and intellect together with his courage to confront the injustices of today's world is admirable. Not only me but the whole Chinese art world will stand up for Qiu Anxiong especially if you continue to behave in such underhanded manner.
I think I have spoken my mind. I hope this letter will clarify this situation.
Regards,
Pearl Lam
Related Links:
·Contrasts Gallery
·Pearl Lam: I See Design as Art 
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