Export- Cargo Transit, Liu Jianhua, "The Section of Experimental Art at the 25th National Art Exhibition"

Within the context of global trades and shipping, huge amounts of industrial and life waste produced in developed countries in the West have been illegally shipped into China and other developing countries for disposal, which have caused severe pollutions to natural environments of these countries. The 1989 Basel Convention has been designated to prevent the transfer of hazardous and toxic waste from developed countries to less developed countries. However, the reality states the opposite. Developed countries still consider their own benefits over other nations, and the gap between national agreements and reality reflects gaps in political views of two parties.
The work draws attention to the import of international waste, and provokes discussions about inequality between developed and developing countries and their one-way, high-pressured relationship. This inequality is rooted from the unbalanced economical developments, as well as ideological and cultural gaps.
In this work, among the international waste shipped into China as commodities, the artist has recycled these waste and made them into artworks, and then he has re-exported them to the West as artworks displayed at exhibitions. This artist production has reversed the power chain, stimulated a reconsideration of current power relations between the developed and developing countries, and searched for equal interactions and possible communications in economy, politics and art.