Contemporary Chinese Design - Portland Art Museum

Yesterday I visited the special exhibit at the Portland Art Museum on contemporary design in China.  What really impressed me is how well laid out the exhibit it - they used space very well.  What also impressed me is how well they placed contemporary design in a political-historical context.  A friend of mine who was raised in China said she was disappointed at how commercial the exhibit is, though she realizes that just is part of the deal with a focus on design.

Two themes I found fascinating is that it took about two decades after economic liberalization for urban people to get a real feel for the concept of individuality.  For obvious reasons we take that for granted.  A second, and related, theme is that since there was no need for distinguishing oneself from the masses, and there have been historical reasons to avoid doing that, design is a part of that competitive process.  Here again, we take these ideas so much for granted that we're really not able to see just how important they are.