‘THE SITTER’
2018 

‘The Sitter’; inkjet printing, hardcover edition; 25 x 25 (cm)

‘The Sitter’; inkjet printing, hardcover edition; 25 x 25 (cm)

‘The Sitter’; inkjet printing, hardcover edition; 25 x 25 (cm)

‘The Sitter’; inkjet printing, hardcover edition; 25 x 25 (cm)

(Photo documentation by Jacky Jaan-Yuan Kuo)

Many ‘sitters’ can be seen everywhere throughout Shanghai City, who are responsible for managing and reporting anything on the pavement at all times. Sometimes they wander around or stare blankly at the street; sometimes they sit alone muttering on the chairs, like objective and site-specific narrators. This makes it difficult for people to distinguish what the objectives would be with this kind of ‘naturally existing monitors’ , whose working environments are still strewn through and conspicuously circled in public sphere of China. Interestingly, however, the private activity, behaviour, mentality, and lifestyle of the sitters were exposed to the public space at the same time – with various uniforms, chairs and personal belongings being displayed –, which shapes a daily scene of China.

Through this perspective, I developed a series of photographs of the ‘city-sitters’ directly reproducing the imprints of such stratified labour in Chinese public spaces, including the present and absent moments of some of the ‘sitters’. In addition, through the format of a photo book, my intention was to respond to the reality of being monitored in various/trivial forms around the clock in China, as well as to question the scenario of seeing and being seen between the citizens and the ‘sitters’.