A visit to Edward Burtynsky's Exhibit at BMA

A visit to Edward Burtynsky's Exhibit at BMA
Originally uploaded by triciawang.

Brooklyn Musuem of Arts
Photographer: Edward Burtynsky
Manufacturing #17,
Deda Chicken Processing Plant, Dehui City, Jilin Province, 2005

Kenyatta and I went to BMA to check out Edward Burtynsky's exhibit. He's a Canadian documenting "CHINA" undergoing it's industrial and environmental transformation. We were passing by as the BMA Art Docent was giving a tour, and she points to this picture and says "This is a picture of a Shanghai factory, you see they have big factories now - humongous, and they make things for USA, like toasters. China has many factories like this, and the workers have to work long hours." I felt the art docent, a 70 year old Caucasian woman, paralleled Burtynsky's approach to China - CHINA IS ONE BIG COUNTRY with LOTS OF PEOPLE - WOW! His photographic purpose was to capture the beauty and ugliness of China's environmental wastes. Many of times I think Westerners are shocked that the Chinese are actually doing what Western nations have been doing - however he's looking down upon them for doing so. The introduction to this exhibit was a quote by Burtynsky, "China has been seduced by Western ideals."
I am most annoyed at this approach because it assumes:
1.) China is copying America's ideals, culture and etc - as if they don't have a mind of their own or a culture of their own to foster.
2.) it is bad for China to want to compete in the global economy
3.) that America doesn't have just as many of it's mass factories and environmental wastes. America is so good at hiding it's own mess - we should invite Burtynsky to document our wastes, our factories, our crap.

Nothing annoys me more than "environmentalists" deriding China for it's bad bad enivronmental record. - I don't think Burtynsky did that overtly - but his comments suggested that he felt China has been corrupted. In the minds of Westerners - China is at times portrayed as a land of pure nature filled with citizens clamoring to be more "American."