The US presidential election is set for a nail-biting conclusion, with many polls showing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump at a dead heat. But one Chinese artist thinks he might have special insight into the upcoming results. His source of information? Campaign merchandise made in Yiwu, a manufacturing hub in Eastern China’s Zhejiang province.
Last weekend, artist Dong Dawei opened “Yiwu’s Choice of World” at C5CNM, a small experimental project space located within Beijing’s 798 Art District. The Beijing-based artist’s project references what’s referred to as the “Yiwu Index.” Sometimes called “the world capital of small commodities,” Yiwu is the source for much of America’s election merchandise. As such, some commentators believe that monitoring orders for campaign merchandise in Yiwu can give you advance notice of American election results.
The “Yiwu Index” famously predicted Trump’s unexpected victory in 2016. Though sales in Yiwu failed to forecast Biden’s victory in 2020, as the press release for Dong’s project mentions, the index is thought to have anticipated Biden’s July withdrawal from the race in favor of Kamala Harris.
Against this anxiety-ridden backdrop, Dong has collected found images and Yiwu-made campaign merchandise, presenting these materials in the form of an art project arranged in C5CNM’s small space. (We mean really small — you might need to enter the doorway sideways.)
It’s somewhat jarring to see Make America Great Again hats and shirts alongside a rainbow flag-referencing Harris banner, and thought-provoking to be reminded that all of these items were made in the same city, likely as part of the same supply chains. After election results begin to filter in at the end of the day on Tuesday, November 5, visitors to the space will be able to compare and contrast Dong’s gleanings with the actual vote tallies.
For the artist, the “Yiwu Index” illustrates the impracticality of economic decoupling between China and America, despite what some political forces in either country may hope for. Though Yiwu’s manufacturers and traders don’t get a vote in the US presidential election, they conversely play a role in it. And of course, the election results have the potential to impact the entire world.
This project marks a slight departure for Dong, who has born in Dalian in 1981 and studied at École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges in France. Though his practice generally has a conceptual bent, it has taken varied forms, from colorful, abstract marker drawings, to interventions in Western landscape painting. His recent exhibition, “Metaphors We Live By,” which was on view at Beijing’s Tong Gallery+Projects in August and September, covered territory closer to that of “Yiwu’s Choice of World,” adopting imagery from pop culture and referencing Chinese manufacturing. In one piece, Yanjiao, a town in Hebei province bordering Beijing’s suburbs, is added to a list of cultural capitals written on a t-shirt: New York, London, and Paris.
“Yiwu’s Choice of World” is on display at C5CNM until December 1, and is accessible any time of the day via an electronic lock combination. So if you’re in China and want to experience the election across the time difference, or — depending on the results — need to have a late night cry at some point over the next few weeks, it could be the perfect spot. That is, the next best place after Yiwu.
Banner image courtesy C5CNM.
