When I was a translator at the Milan Contemporary Art Biennale, I received a Berlin gallery owner. The distressed saddle bag she was carrying was mistaken for a vintage exhibit until a visitor scanned the lining code with an ultraviolet lamp and found that “lxybags·ru” was etched on the back of the metal rivets.
The punk godmother laughed on the spot: “The last time I had such a surprise was when I found out that the Duchamp urinal in the MoMA collection was bought from a Brooklyn hardware store!”
In fact, the laser cutting machines in some OEM factories in southern China have three generations of AI calibration systems that are more advanced than those in European workshops.
You never know that the post-00s wearing AR glasses for quality inspection on the assembly line are comparing the Hermès needle distance with the hand speed of the King of Glory.
When copying murals in Dunhuang last year, the instructor taught us to identify the “cutting-edge techniques” of the Northern Wei Dynasty: in order to meet deadlines, the painters would replace the gold powder on the folds of the Bodhisattva’s clothes with yellow mud, and then cover it with a layer of transparent glaze to create a streamer effect.This ancient wisdom has evolved into a kind of performance art in the contemporary era.