From NetEase:
These past two days, a group of images titled “Those things that happen in hotel rooms” have been spreading hotly on the internet. Although this group of pictures are works of art, many netizens feel they are very realistic. There are also netizens both in the know and netizens who are not in the know who say this group of images were inspired by a group of foreign work by a well-known American commercial photographer named Lyndon Wade, whose clients include Sony, Virgin, Pepsi, General Electric, Best Buy, Dodge, BBDO and other famous companies and advertising companies. Official Website: http://lyndonwade.com
His group of photos named “Room 107″ capture from a single angle the moments that happen in a hotel room, including murder, sex, marriage, violence, family, life attitudes of the elderly, etc., and are very interesting.
Here are the original foreign Lyndon Wade photographs:
Comments from KDS:
无里无作:
Excellent, pretty interesting.
超烦:
I cannot distinguish if these were drawn or photographed.
寶貝鴨子:
Haha…good post!!
冥之幻想:
Artistic, you can go to France to exhibit.
大妈:
A little exaggerated, but it is a miniature [representation] of this society.
和尚开心:
Very good pictures, very realistic.
1oo1:
With such limited space, it relies on the imagination. It appears there are several stories involved. For example a child kidnapped.
Genesis:
伐是摸她她:
All hard disk!
All hard disk!
All hard disk!
哈来来:
If you put all of the pictures put together you can make a story.
三叶草:
Very harmonious,
very realistic.
K-I:
So what about the originals~~
Only when it matches/resembles the state of our country can it resonate~~~
My young artistic spirit has again been lit~~~
达达:
Comments from NetEase:
222.132.107:
Interesting, social realism, especially that one with the official seal.
124.129.220:
Classic.
218.19.225.*:
Those who get out of the house know — this is the true side of society…
zhangjunkai1:
Hahaha, exceedingly niubi post!
So classic! If it were made into a movie it would be even better!
116.229.21.*:
Normally I do not like to look at these kind of things, but, truly ~ so niu…
孤寂的新加坡:
Work of realism.
Great works of art are created this way.
60.184.81.*:
Fake, made with Photoshop.
Do you have any interesting stories of hotel rooms?
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The Chinese version looks better than the American original.
I think they look better, they pop out at you a little more and are more dramatic in the scene. However including the lonely man was genius. It made me think of the piece a little differently. The kids with fireworks is great too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9va9H-nsfE
I already saw those on danwei and I love it. fl999 is right, Chinese version is way more better. Maybe because of light.
Did you notice that same girl is on 3(or 4) pics?
i noticed the girl in the track suit. she’s with the the boy in the track suit in one picture then she appears to be the one who’s getitng beaten in the other picture.
utterly trite and boring.
Surprisingly, I found the Chinese version much more in your face and graphic.
while the American is merely surreal, the Chinese one actually gives us a cross-section of society, with a cast of reconisable characters。
It seems that shanzhai (山寨） copies can surpass the original, so there’s hope for Chinese society yet! ;-) （开玩笑）
I love the students pic.
pretty realistic. love it!
The one with the old couple is my favorite!
I laughed at the swords and the olympic bag.
The chinese ones are only better in the way that they portray some recognizable characters that can make us laugh. Although to be honest I think a few of the pictures aren’t representative of China at all. The originals are far closer to art. The light level adds more atmosphere to the pics, the models are more convincing in their facial expressions and stance, and the scenes they depict are far more artistic. Just my opinion.
me like the last one.
@Peteryang
Get laid, dude. Your testosterone is spilling over into the internet
Internet is a serious business, and so is my testosterone.
Does everything in China have to be copied so blantantly from the west? I don’t mean “inspired by”, “improved on”, “based on actual events”, I mean just a one-off? Whether it’s a high quality, artsy, bootleg or snazzy duplicate, there is little to be said for this kind of constant weak-ass shit.
To answer my own question, no, everything doesn’t, and isn’t. But sometimes it sure seems that way. Oh, and in my local laundromat hang copies of “the masters” painted by people in Hong Kong.
Why don’t we just call globalization by it’s true name, Americanization, or the slimely residue of American Beat/Madison Avenue/Hollywood(with some European or occasionally Japanese) culture?
As an aside:
I think most people would be amazed by how banal drugs and violence get to be after awhile. It might be fun, for awhile, to be a voyeur and explore your middle/working class fantasies about fucking boss honeys, smoking herb and throwing crisp hooks to the jaw, but:
it’s not fun to sit in the clinic waiting for them to stick a Q-Tip UP YOUR DICK to see if you got burned by some skank (again).
Oral surgery to replace a tooth knocked out in a fight is expensive, humbling and painful. No exciting rushes of testosterone from that! Ditto the days spent waiting for your ribs to heal after you get stomped, or conversely waiting for your knuckles to heal after you baptize some guy who would probably be an allright dude if he just didn’t happen to live on the wrong street.
Waiting to make bail and hoping that you have enough props to keep from getting punked in jail. On that note, I will leave the rest to your imagination.
I dislike ChinaSMACK, in a way. Its the worst kind of voyeurism, cheap thrills at other’s misery, and lots of shit talking by people who would never walk it. And why would you want to, for Christ’s sake?
You know what true happiness is? Stability, societial responsibility and emotional maturity – sorry. Unfortunately, we all like to give in to what we think is our inner “fallen angel” and go out and play 50 Cents.
Sorry, but I do love a sermon.
Old Boy Homeboy
Yep reallllyyyy on point there. Sure you’re not taking a page from your own history book there? What do you mean ‘copied from the west’? Firstly art itself is the refined copy of life so what’s the big deal? Secondly throughout history aspiring artists copy their master’s works as part of their apprenticeship – they ‘graduated’ once they had perfected the techniques of their teacher. So people copy and sell them nowadays to hang in laundries, so what? The pop art movement led by Warhol was based on the idea of taking prints and mass producing them – art for the masses. Thirdly the fact that these pictures had predecessors in no way detracts from their appeal.
That is art – the ability to shock, to inspire and to exist without excuses for itself. Because hey, at the end of it all, all art is quite useless.
I sort of agree with both of you, and disagree with both of you.
I don’t think it’s so terrible that this guy has copied a style of someone else’s photos. He’s taking something and making it Chinese to reflect some ideas he has about his culture – he’s made it “Chinese”. I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with people interpreting other people’s art through the eyes of their own country and culture.
That being said, it definitely doesn’t stand up to the original (for reasons I stated in an earlier post); and it definitely doesn’t have the same impact when you find out it has been copied – it becomes merely “clever” instead of outstanding. I hope the guy who did this moves on to something better and more unique when he continues his career.
Hello everyone,
We are very flatter that our Photographers Wade Brothers work are being copied in China. We can only hope these guys who copied “Room 107″ are capable to come up with some original ideas and photography work.
Redorfe
All art is copied from something. People have been doing that different version of the same room, including hotel rooms, for decades.
It all comes from somewhere else… these guys were influenced by Marcel Duchamp and Manrey who were inspired by the paintings of Van Gogh and the prints of Latrec who copied Hiroshige whose traditions were influenced by the old Chinese masters who copied ancient India religious art and so on and so on…
As an aside:
Some people do drugs, fuck hos, bash heads and get involved in every base thing out there then preach to the rest about the “hard knock life”. Others don’t need to do all that shit first to figure out how stupid it is.
pathetic. yet another example of non-creativity. Why does there have to be a Chinese version at all? I was enjoying the chinese photos until i saw they were a rip off, sometimes obviously, of the originals…. why can’t the chinese simply enjoy the originals. Sad.
Yes, they are inspired by “Room 107″, but that doesn’t change their value. It is normally and common to interpret same theme in art. Context is different, people is different. They are not rip-off, they are interpretation. In given context, they have different meaning.
Sometimes, interpretations are better works than original. Original idea or not, this photos have artistic value and correlation between this two sets are very interesting. Someone would call it “Cultural dialog”
FYI: There’s a tendency between younger artists on the west to imitate Chinese realistic/naturalistic style by technique and themes.
I like both sets although the Chinese ones have the advantage of being larger as presented here on CS thereby offering better detail and better viewing. I agree with ehm,, can’t remember who,, that the photo of the lonely man adds a whole different perspective to the portfolio. Based solely on that picture I am going to pic the originals as the best. Did anyone think of Lost in Translation?
I think those are more like motel rooms than hotel rooms… but very interesting nonetheless.
“The Chinese version looks better than the American original.” – and thats my problem right there. Why not DO SOMETHING ORIGINAL in the first place. “Copy copy copy” its the mantra of China’s “new art”.
You clearly don’t know anything about China’s new art, you’re just basing that opinion on this one example. Come to Beijing and visit the art district and galleries here, you’ll see a lot of highly original artwork.
he’s angry because it is better. lawl
what’s with the circles on the back of the dude with spiderman underroos?
thats a chinese medicine thing…they put those glass bowls on you and then use a vaccuum to make them stick there and theyre supposed to suck poisons out of your system and such…leave big, round bruises though.
It’s not just TCM, have you seen the Ken Russel movie “The Devils” (although there they have wasps in the jars)?
Kind of funny this is-it-better-than-the-original argument. Even if it is, it’s still copying something old and not creating something new. :p that being said I think both sets of images are great.
Agree with fl1999. The people are more expressive in the first set. Great photographs. Every artist starts out copying someone else. I thought the migration of the poop pot was pretty funny. How do you say poop pot in Chinese… for that matter, how do you say it in English?
What do you mean , “He made it Chinese”?
It isn’t a copy. It is re-interpretation,a common place in art.
It is a copy so as long as there is an original. It doesn’t matter how you say it ‘re-interpretation’ if there is an original then its still copied. On a side note, that artist should at least find a male porn actor thats more healthy looking. That guy there is one scrawny product of poverty.
So, Leonardo’s “Annunciation” is copy, not genuine work of art?
And that Chopin bastard—copying the idea of the nocturne from great Irish composer John Field. Fucking Polish thief!
Some people are so intrigued by fireworks. My opinion you see one show, you’ve seen them all. Boringgg. LOL
At first I thought, “What a clever concept!” When I saw that they were “inspired by” other photos, and then saw the other photos themselves…
I mean, this is just copying. It’s not inspiration, it’s imitation. They’re nice photos, but it’s completely disingenuous to try to pass these off as original art. It’s not right.
It’s ok. Much better than the usual so-called art, for example this Chinese guy who paints big-mouthed laughing men, always the same one all over again, and sells them for hundreds of thousands to stupid foreign investors. Or most – sorry ALL – of the “modern art” that gets sponsored by taxpayers in Europe.
Awesome pictures, awesome ideas. I think idea-wise it was even better then original ‘foreign’ series, though it would be even better if it would’ve been in shot in an original Chinese type hotel room.
In art, people have been borrowing from each other since time immemorial, so a bit of reinterpretation here and there can’t hurt.
I think most Westerners commingle their frustration with the Western financial elite transferring all middle class wealth to the financial elite, with a substantial amount of wealth and even more jobs going to China. Combine that with China’s wholesale theft of developed world IP and then when Westerners hear the word “copy” they see red.
I don’t think it applies to art, but I can see why people are frustrated. Just remember that Scorcese’s “The Departed” with DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson was a straight rip off of the Hong Kong flick “Infernal Affairs” its a two way street folks!
Yeah, except Hollywood actually went and bought the rights to the story, instead of just stealing it without asking permission. ;)
That’s true to nature
Beijing Art Now Gallery is now hosting Chili Red Star Motel Exhibition untill the end of August. The Gallery is opened from tuesday till sunday 12:00- 18:00, the Gallery is close to the 798 area.
http://www.beijingartnow.com
画廊地址：北京市朝阳区崔各庄乡草场地村红一号院E座 100015
adress: Building E,Red Yard No.1,Cao Chang Di,Cui Ge zhuang,Chaoyang Dist. Beijing
tel:86-10-51273292 fax： 86-10-51273293
I like Art Now gallery, and I like the set, but this is nothing but the SPAM. Fauna should delete this comment.
what’s wrong about letting people know that there is currently an exhibition about Red Star Motel pictures and giving info about the artist? Why would you like to delete an informative comment?
It is SPAM by definition. It is not informative comment but unwanted advertising for Art Now gallery. And ChinaSmack doesn’t have a fen from your advertising. Link to website was enough. Address is what useful info makes spam. None asked for address, you provided by yourself. So it is advertising trough comment system of a blog, and that is spam.
If I’m in Beijing, I would visit exhibition.
The original room 107 was done in 2003 and is for sale at Lumas galleries. There is also a video that went along with room 107. You can view it here. http://www.thewadebrothers.com
does the Chinese version do this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9va9H-nsfE just wondering?
I kind of prefer the Chinese ones but the originals are cool too.
The only problem I see with the American one is how posed everything is, the Chinese ones are more raw and I would dare to say an improvement.
awesome!!! wanna do something like that… congrats!!!!!!!!
overphotoshopped