There Is Something Unpleasant in the Air
空气中弥漫着一股糟糕的味道

2024.8.3-10.13

ARTIST 艺术家
Hu Qingtai 胡庆泰

DRC No. 12 is pleased to announce that artist Hu Qingtai's solo project “There Is Something Unpleasant in the Air” will open on August 3, 2024.

Hu Qingtai continues his persistent focus on the underlying reality around him, drawing on his personal existential experience and evolving knowledge, particularly those he gained as an e-commerce customer service representative of Pinduoduo between 2021 and 2024. He personally experienced a downward trajectory from a daily sale of ten thousand yuan to zero, and witnessed a myriad of e-commerce companies and small brick-and-mortar factories clearing out and leaving the market.

In the project, the artist has compiled information collected during the period from conversations with e-commerce peers and customers, including offline merchants, their employees, and job-seekers, covering topics ranging from domestic e-commerce to cross-border shipping, from express delivery to logistics, and from unemployment to “gray industry.”

Every phrase embroidered on a piece of fabric that one randomly picks up on the spot represents a lower-class individual struggling in a difficult situation. The statements are full of contradictions, loss of trust, inadequacies of human nature, and the cry of individuals’ negative balance sheets. All of them reveal the psychological anxiety, panic, and obscured vision of the future, as well as the groaning, grumbling, and dissatisfaction of the individuals in this land.

Through this project, the artist attempts to materialize an abstract, disturbing smell pervading the social climate. Under the current extremely grim social prospect and precarious international relations, we may find ourselves in the midst of an economic recession and entering a “garbage time of history.”

The project will run until October 13, 2024.

外交公寓12号空间荣幸地宣布，艺术家胡庆泰的个人项目《空气中弥漫着一股糟糕的味道》将于8月3日开展。

胡庆泰延续了对身边底层现实的持续关注，记录下个人经历中的生存体验和认知跋涉。在拼多多平台上经营电商兼客服工作期间（2021年至今），他亲历了从日销万元到日销为零的日日夜夜，并见证了大量电商及实体小厂遭遇的无奈清退与离场。

在这个项目中，艺术家将上述工作期间与电商同行、客户、线下实体商户以及打工者的交谈信息汇集在一起，其中的内容涉及国内业态、跨境出海、快递物流，失业裁员到灰色产业链等诸多现实面向的话题。

现场随手捡起的一段只言片语，都代表着一个在困境中苦苦挣扎的底层人。语句中处处充斥着个体的抱怨、矛盾的激化、心理的扭曲、信任的流失以及收支的失衡，无不透露出人们的焦虑、慌张和对未来画面的抽象与失焦。

胡庆泰在创作中试图将这种“糟糕”的氛围物化或具体化。在极不稳定的国际关系和社会前景下，我们是否正身处经济衰退和“历史的垃圾时间”当中？

展期至2024年10月13日。