Portraits of workers who produce the toys are embedded in the installations on show. Wu Ni / China Daily

Shattering a stereotype

Genes in her photos

In March 2004, Wolf spent four weeks traveling through California with a van, collecting old toys from hundreds of shops and flea markets.

"My criteria was that each toy must have a face, and had to have been made in China," he says.

Magnets were attached to the 20,000 toy figures with superglue, so that they could be installed on the walls of various museums.

Meanwhile, he started expanding the project by documenting the true faces of Chinese factory workers that produce the real toys.

"I visited five toy factories in China where I photographed the workers producing the toys. These portraits are embedded in the installation, and add another level of meaning to the project," said the artist.

He says the art installation is to pay homage to the numerous nameless Chinese workers that have made about 75 percent of toys for children around the world.

The workers' facial expressions, clothing and working environment formed a sharp contrast to the toys they made, provoking a reflection on the relationship between toys and workers, factories and consumers as well as China and the world.

Wolf was born in Munich and grew up in the United States. He studied both at the University of California Berkeley and the Folkwang School in Essen in Germany with renowned photography master Otto Steinert.

His photographs explore the complex cultural identity of China, from commercial elements of this new global economy to the social and economic implications of the urban density in the city of Hong Kong.

IF YOU GO

K11 Art Mall B3: 300 Huaihai Zhonglu (Middle Road), Huangpu district, Shanghai. 10 am - 10 pm, Jan 11 to Feb 12. 021-6387-6688.