Manufacturing #16

I recently was at the Glenbow Museumand checked out Edward Burtynsky's Encounter’s exhibition.  One photograph that interested me the most during my visit was Manufacturing #16, Cankun Factory, selected by Ron Renaud.

The content of the painting shows the viewer large amounts of different groups of people in uniform along a picture plan. There are hundreds of people that get smaller and smaller farther along towards the horizon. At first glance I thought these people were elementary children ready to go inside of their school in the morning at the beginning of an academic day, but after reading the title I realized that all these people are factory workers. The scene here takes place in China.

I liked this photograph a lot because I was able to make meaning out of it right away, something I’m not use to when interpreting a work of art. There are hundreds of individuals in this photo, all in the same yellow coloured uniform and all light skin and dark haired oriental people. These people are merely replaceable products for the big companies in charge of these factories; just like the products the workers manufacture. The workers are all the same; in a way that they are dehumanized because of their lack of individuality; they are objectified.

This photo may present an image of people all dressed in bright happy yellow, although at a deeper level this photograph is very sad. The fact that this photograph is called Manufacturing #16 says a lot as well. First of all, #16 says a lot. This means that the artist might have at least another 15 photographs just like this one; which is very accurate given that fact that the use of factory workers in countries like China is very common. Even if the artist doesn't have 15 other photographs just like this one, #16 is there to show this that this image is something that isn't out of the ordinary. This is only one photograph of one factory in China, when you think of the other hundreds of factories in China, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this photograph was even called Manufacturing#116. One other aspect of this photo’s title was the fact that its called Manufacturing; there’s hundreds of people in this photo, yet they aren’t important when it comes to the subject? Just like the use of sweat shop labour- the hundreds of people are not important, all that is important is the manufacturing.

Source: Philip Jägenstedt through Flickr

Have your guys seen any good exhibitions at the Glenbow Museum? Was my analysis a little far fetch? Let me know what you think!

-Fadia