Retail Business – Karaoke No. 2, 2009

Karaoke is a very modern leisure activity. It evokes the singularity and creativity of the star combined with a friendly invitation to participate though with no unpleasant outcome. Thus, singing in karaoke bars and in front of gaming consoles we become leisure-time chums amidst a post-materialistic utopia, in which pure consumption is expanded to evoke a sense of participation and involvement. Seen critically, the karaoke, which was developed in Japan during the 1970s, anticipated what casting shows have now carried to extremes throughout the globe: the promise to escape everyday life and to suddenly become the center of attention.
In his series Retail Business, Jin Shi focuses on this tragically hopeful aspect of leisure society: billiards, wellness centers, or the aforementioned karaoke are shrunk to dimensions transportable by bicycle so as to augment the precarious goods touted by market vendors and itinerant hawkers. Here, join-in-culture meets the necessity to improvise with whatever is presently at one’s disposal, and urban glamour fulfills the desire among poor populations in megacities to temporarily forget their worries. (JB)