Bath House, 120x150cm, 2000
I remembered that when I was a child, I often went to public baths together with other boys because most families did not have such facilities back in home. A “bathroom” was the place where children played and had fun. I even swam in the bathtub. When I grow up, China has experienced dramatic changes through opening-up and modernization. People’s lives are improved. Many rich families install bathroom and electric or gas water heater at home. The public bathhouses have gradually disappeared from our life. However, they are reconstructed and decorated by people who have an eye to their commercial value. The past public bathhouses reappear as fancy “Bathing Centers” where services of all varieties are offered, such as bath, footnail-clipping, massage and dining as well as Karaoke, and other forms of entertainment. They become a new spot for consumption. Rich guys even go there for discussing negotiations, signing contracts and having parties. Of course bathhouses are abused as places for illicit sexual trade since it is the easiest way to make huge amounts of money. Such businesses got very faddish not only in the entertainment industry, but also in fields such as urban construction, culture, etc. These phenomena seem to be very common which are so weird and abnormal, yet exist in contemporary China. This is the reason and significance that I set up a spa setting and invite female models to shoot Bath House.
|
|
