If Time is Money, Are ATMs Time Machines?
With Julian Abraham ‘Togar’, Walead Beshty, Rossella Biscotti, Javier Castro, Ian Cheng, Heman Chong, Duto Hardono, Matt Kane, Ayoung Kim, Taiyo Kimura, Li Lang, Liu Yu, Cinthia Marcelle, Adriana Martínez, Kate Mitchell, Amor Muñoz, Diana Fonseca Quiñones, Shang Yixin, Song Dong, Mungo Thomson, Wang Jianwei, and Luka Yuanyuan Yang The maxims “time is money” and “efficiency is life” run throughout philosopher and economist Karl Marx’s analyses of politics and economics. It was popularized by Deng Xiaoping at the beginning of China’s economic reform and opening-up policy to underline the correlation between the passage of time, production, and financial success. However, in today’s world where people are living a better life with sufficient materials, and in the context of the global covid-19 pandemic that forced us to reconsider our ways of life, we cannot help but ask ourselves whether life is only evaluated by the materials manufactured and measured per unit of time. The group exhibition If Time is Money, Are ATMs Time Machines? aims to reconsider the relationship between time, life, and capitalism, inscribing itself within a long tradition of such inquiries across cultures. Presenting newly commissioned and existing artworks by twenty-three artists from China and beyond, the show surveys various systems of perceiving time–including our modern understanding of time shaped by capitalism. The exhibition proposes alternative futures based on the respect of individual life experiences, social interactions, and communities. It opens with works by Walead Beshty, Li Liao, Liu Yu, Matt Kane, Kate Mitchell, and Taiyo Kimura which point to the constant capitalist obsession of measuring time and its impact on capital, labor, wellbeing, and relationships. Rossella Biscotti, Ian Cheng, Cinthia Marcelle, Adriana Martínez, Mungo Thomson, and Luka Yuanyuan Yang remind us of the alternative historical, ecological, and technological ways humans have experienced time through centuries. Julian Abraham ‘Togar,’ Javier Castro, Heman Chong, Duto Hardono, Ayoung Kim, Diana Fonseca Quiñones, and Amor Muñoz put forward narratives grounded in gender, culture, and community-based perspectives, ones that are often left out of the global histories of capitalism, yet remain at the heart of society. Works by Li Lang, Shang Yixin, Song Dong, and Wang Jianwei indicate the possibilities of living with and being present in the moment, turning our mindset from material- and result-oriented into process-oriented. If Time is Money, Are ATMs Time Machines? forces us to slow down and experience time at our pace while re-centering the importance of community. It reminds us of the importance of building a future in symbiosis with nature, kin, and technology in our ever-changing and entangled realities. Curated by Shen Ruijun with Marie Martraire and Shona Mei Findlay.