CAFA graduate Zou Yaqi
Zou Yaqi tried on a jade guise bracelet worth 5 million yuan at the auction preview
Interview with Wang Wei
Figure & video courtesy of respondents
From May 1 to 21, 2021, CAFA graduate Zou Yaqi created a performance art work. She bought a fake Hermès bag, dressed up as a rich man, and lived in Beijing for 21 days without spending a penny. She has lived in the airport lounge, hotel lobby, Haidilao, sofas in residential buildings, and IKEA mother and baby lounges. In the meantime, she was a celebrity waiting for a trip in the VIP room, a woman who caught adultery in the hotel lobby, a rich woman who visited an auction exhibition, and a pregnant woman who was tired and resting at IKEA.
She recorded this process in the form of images and named it "Instantaneous Ownership", which she said was a reference during the creation. The reason is that when she tried on more than 5 million bracelets at an auction preview, she understood that no one can have it forever, it belongs only to nature, and the moment that has been there is eternity.
During the exhibition, Zou Yaqi added a "Mission Must Reach" link, she asked visitors to write down their wishes on sticky notes, and if they could be satisfied, she would carry them out. According to the contents of the note, she went to IKEA to deliver Coke to the staff, contacted the adoption of stray animals for people who wanted to adopt puppies, and put a sofa on her booth for people to rest. She thinks this is the part that is repaid to society.
After the exhibition of "Instant Ownership", it attracted some discussion and attention. Some galleries signed a contract with Zou Yaqi, and now she is a professional contract artist who is working on her next video work. When completed, it will be exhibited and sold in the gallery.
YOUNG Finance interviewed Zou Yaqi and listened to her talk about her family, life and works. Here's what she said:
I am an average middle-class girl
I love all the good things and have no obsession with designer brands
I grew up in Hunan, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, a place I call a third-tier city. My parents were in business, and when I was about five or six years old, there was a wave of layoffs, so they laid off and started doing business.
Before I went to high school, my family became rich for a while. To what extent is it rich? I remember my parents hiring workers to help them take care of the family. I have a younger brother, so I have a dedicated aunt to take care of him. There was also an aunt who specialized in cooking, a teacher who tutored my tutor, and in short, during that time, there would be many workers in the family to help us in our lives.
I remember my childhood being relatively rich, although it was not reflected in myself, because my family would not give me too much pocket money, and I did not dress beautifully or use luxury goods or anything. My mom would buy some nice clothes and jewelry, but wouldn't buy them for me, and I didn't have much pocket money.
Among my peers, I don't count as a girl with that kind of celebrity temperament. Elementary school to middle school does not have those academic pressures, I will have some strange ideas, do some fun things. At that time, I still liked water margin, studying water margin every day, when I wanted to earn pocket money, I would write novels, write very exciting novels, rent 5 cents a piece to my classmates, and earn several dollars a day.
Since middle school, I have been a typical housewife. My parents will also be more restrictive and will not give me too much money, but I will also dress myself up, and I will also have some small dresses, but not so outstanding.
When our family became rich, I didn't buy luxury goods. But the wife of a friend of my father's gave me a pair of shoes, I don't remember why my parents confiscated them at that time, I didn't care so much, I just thought the shoes were not good. This should have been the first luxury of my relationship, missing out on me.
Growing up, I bought Valentino at a charity store for only $10. My rich sister-in-law gave me an Armani shirt, and the brands I usually buy are cheap or fast-moving brands, even if I can make a little money now, I will not buy very expensive things. I love to buy things, will buy a lot of inexpensive but good texture clothes to match, I can't afford to consume big brands, I follow my own ability to consume, there is no obsession and desire for luxury goods. I like all beautiful things, especially people who study art, and everyone has no resistance to beautiful things. I don't have any attachment to logos.
Now I usually stay at home, learn and play through the Internet, and occasionally play with friends. I cook and also order takeout, and they are one-to-one. I love cats, I'm a cat pie, I have two pastoral cats.
Four elements of Celebrity LOOK:
Be atmospheric, black and white and red, dress rich, and look lazy
The makeup was completely done by relying on the small tray in my hand.
I'm not a celebrity and I can't define a celebrity, I'm just imitating.
Before starting the work, I summarized the makeup of those celebrities on the Internet, and did some research, for the stereotypes of celebrities on the Internet, or refer to the experience of students with superior families. I found that "Celebrity Makeup" is mainly atmospheric, black and white and red, which is completely different from my own usual makeup.
I'm quite autistic, a very ordinary housewife. Shy and not good at dealing with others. In my daily life, when I go to school and meet my friends, I wear Uniqlo's short skirts and shorts with my hole shoes. I especially like hole shoes. If I want to go to other beautiful women or more important occasions, I will carefully dress up, dress up in a more fashionable way, draw beautiful makeup, wear beautiful pupils or something.
But when I dressed up as a so-called celebrity, I slowly believed that I was like this. It was like a kind of brainwashing, and I told myself that I was just playing an NPC game.
This society is judged by its appearance:
"Good looking" is my plus, what you wear is what kind of person
I know I'm good looking, and I have this clear self-awareness. My "good looks" are indeed a plus for me to be able to successfully complete my work.
Zou Yaqi came to Haidilao carrying the bags she had asked for from the GUCCI store and the snacks from the airport VIP lounge
In the impression of ordinary people, the personality of the celebrity is probably a relatively lazy and loose state. So I deliberately chose a velvet sportswear, and I wanted a state of being laid-back outdoors. The fabric of the garment, I chose the velvet texture, looks very rich. There were also quite a few people who wanted to know what brand my same model was and asked if I had a link.
I bought a fake diamond ring for 18 yuan and a bag for 2,000 yuan, which is a fake Hermès. Carrying it on my back, no one ever recognized it. I've been to the Hermès counter and they haven't seen it, because if they had seen it, they would have been a little more indifferent to me.
The clerk of another luxury store certainly didn't see it. I just came into the store to take a look at things, and when they saw me, they immediately put down the customers they had received, came to recommend them to me, and even sent me their invitation letter, which should be an invitation to an exhibition or dinner party of the brand. Sales means: you can ask me, you can also find your familiar sales, he should also send you. I didn't want to waste his kindness at the time, and I didn't have a familiar sales, so I had to say it was okay, there was no time.
Zou Yaqi ate a buffet in the VIP lounge of the airport.
The last time I went to the lounge, it was a relatively small afternoon, and there was a welcome staff member in the airport lounge, she was beautiful and young, and she was very tall in uniform. I was wearing sunglasses and carrying my fake Hermès, which looked pretty temperamental, and then she welcomed me in. Maybe a few times before she saw me come here to rest.
I was surprised because the VIP lounge at the airport had to verify the identity of the passenger when entering. I was following one of my friends' previous vouchers, which could be exchanged for reminder cards, that is, the kind that you can come in after you go out, and you can use this reminder card to prove your identity, but I was PS at the time.
Warm part
Every day there are some different experiences that touch me.
I met some mothers with children at the airport and in IKEA's mother-and-baby room, all of whom were polite and kind. Once I was in the mother and baby room at IKEA, cleaning up my hair, I met a mother, she took her son, came in to help his little child change clothes, the child is about two or three years old.
IKEA's mother and baby room is large, with curtains separating it into three spaces. I had a couch in one of the resting places, a place to wash my hands, a dryer, and plugs. I charge my phone inside, wash my hair, and put on makeup.
They saw me at the time, and supposedly, as a separate adult woman, I shouldn't be in the mother and baby lounge, which is actually a space-taking act. At that time, the little boy asked, why are there other aunts here? At that time, although I pulled a curtain, I could still see part of my body, and his mother told him that it was because this aunt might be pregnant, before you were still in your mother's belly, and sometimes if your mother was very tired, she would come to the mother and baby room to rest. She broke the siege for me and made me very moved.
Questioning Voices:
How do you know their lives if you're not a celebrity?
A lot of comments will say are you really a celebrity? Or do they think you can do this well, indicating that you are originally a celebrity? I'm certainly not, I'm just an average college graduate from a middle-class family.
I just imitated that look through the preliminary preparation, netizens must hope that what they see is real, they judge some things according to their own experience. There is a comment under my Weibo that I replied to last night, and he asked me if you are not a celebrity, how do you know where there is an auction house? How do you get an invitation? How do you know what a premium hotel looks like or something?
In fact, it is very simple, that is, I did the preliminary research, including on the Internet, various platforms such as Little Red Book, Dianping and other platforms, before I went through a lot of video pictures, some descriptions, know what this place is like, will understand what this place is like. Regarding the auction, I also consulted my teacher Qiu Zhijie at that time.
I will also ask my rich wife friends, or observe their identity status, and I will also learn about the so-called celebrities who are rich and idle on the Internet, to learn from them.
Of course, when I come into contact with the waiter, I have a natural sense of guilt. But later in the process of completing the work, I was no longer afraid of anything, basically only guilt and guilt.
Because it does involve some ethical issues, such as someone thinks that I am a theft, I apologize, I will also pay my responsibility, including now there will be some comments on the Internet, saying that you may not be so glorious, but I think I am just a performance art, I will not do this on a daily basis, nor do I advocate others to do it.
I am now a professional artist
There was a gallery that looked at my report and found me signed, and I am now a professional artist. It's a pleasure to be recognized by the industry.
But at that time, my work did not win the school award. At that time, the teacher had some of his requirements for my work, I did not do it well and did not finish it, I felt that this was indeed helpful to the work, but it was not enough to identify. He felt that these things should have a beginning and an end, and that doing so might have a certain sublimation of my work, but I felt that this was not the ultimate question I was exploring.
When I was about to finish creating, it was about May 21st, when I was in a very tired state, my body was in a low-power saving mode, but my head was running wildly. I felt like it was a practice, and I realized something, and that is that the moment is eternity.
For the future, I do not have high requirements, I hope that I can continue to create and live a richer life. It's not easy to have someone to support me in doing what I want to do.