Mi er wa qi (Milwaukee in pinyin Chinese)
Electric Tool Drill, Electric Tool Grinder, Electric Tool Chainsaw, 2005–07
Acrylic and oil enamel on Milwaukee Electric Tools
My work critically questions
the consolidation of multinational corporations' hegemony over the
global shaping of peoples' tastes and sense of identity. It offers
instead a playful exploration of the possible poetic results of cultural
hybridity.
The Mi er wa qi series specifically focused on the ramifications of globalization on the once thriving manufacturing center of Milwaukee and was engendered by the sale of the Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation to a China-based company. I used the pre-modern hybrid style of chinoiserie as a stylistic trope to reanalyze the outsourcing of jobs overseas and the reemergence of China as a global power.
