Sometimes, well at least when it comes to the visual arts, factories can be a good thing. Not the sort of factories I used to work in as a lad, and excuse the forthcoming Monty Pythonesque monologue, but say Warhol's Factory or China's Factory 798. A factory is a place of production, on the whole it's a mundane and soul-sapping experience being a factory worker, but I for one learned a few things from working 12 hours shifts, sometimes 7 days a week in some of the word post-war industrial monstrosities in Western Europe.

I have baked bread, industrially, as in poured in chemical gloop into vast vats as it spewed forth mucus like material past rows of disenfranchised old men who'd proceed to spit, throw dead rats and cigarette butts in it, yet another good reason to avoid white bread. I have worked for one day hour in an industrial abattoir where I was expected to shovel intestines and congealed blood into a rickety wheelbarrow. I have frenetically pieced together solenoids and PCB boards until my fingers have bled. I have injected bright yellow, pink and blue gunk into plastic sphere's intended to make homes smell more fragrant, and nearly lost my eyesight from the toxic fumes. I have heard the horror stories, seen the misery, and decided a long time ago that there was more to life than money, even if my survival was at stake. The sign of a true artist I am sure you'll agree.

There are of course some lucky S.O.B's out there that happen to stumble across rarer and far more inspired factories, art factories, buildings that house the means of creative production, conveying ideas to the masses, iconography to the visual matrix that is our society, employing those of veritable skill and dexterity to perform something far more complex than packing boxes or lugging cans of dog food from one place to another. As mentioned earlier, before the Pythonesque rant, one such place is Factory 798. You can probably guess by the name that this particular creative collective is indeed housed in a former factory, one that made electronic components during the Cold War.

Nowadays it's intent, at least on one level, is of a more peaceful kind, not for the purposes of war against opposing ideologies (ahem) and nation state enemies, but rather against China's own reductive and oppressive Communist/Capitalist regime, that still has a lot to learn about balancing economic development against the rights of the individual, as does Britain, and many other so-called democracies. The establishment of such spaces has indeed marked a beginning, however tentative, of a burgeoning urban arts scene in China, something that many across the world, let alone the global art community welcome with open arms. Anything that can contribute to Chinese self-expression, artistic or otherwise, guarantees at least the chance of an open debate on the quality of life and most importantly human rights advocation in China.

As of now Factory 798 is what I'd file under the category of 'wait and see', will it venture forth into the wilds of the arts and present truly challenging work, visual art that might even contest the validity of the Chinese dictatorship, because after all it is a dictatorship? Somehow I doubt it, or at least for the very near future, more likely much of the art will lean towards the decorative, offering very little social comment. But then again, just as governments have cited more and more restrictions for what advertising agencies can produce or even infer in many major TV and print campaigns, such as non-airbrushed models, truthful and legible disclaimers, and even the lack of product as regards to cigarettes, perhaps artists in China will take up the gauntlet, think outside of the box, and ever-so-subtly secrete their aspirations and concerns through their art.

One creative company housed at the complex is Time Out, their English and Chinese language editions are in the less than envious position of publishing a magazine in a country still immersed in a quagmire of censorship and stifling political legislation. Even to the degree that criticising architecture, or the explosion in mega-city developments could be seen by the regime as counter-revolutionary or subversive. Still one has to admire their tenacity.

One also has to admire the fact that despite the living conditions, urban art has finally, if somewhat decoratively, hit the streets of China. For all those who argue that graffiti is merely vandalism, now is the time to swallow your words, in this case street art may be the first link in a chain of events that will finally give the people of China the democracy they so desire.

Take a closer look at this last photo, yes it's Liu Bolin – if you want to know more read about him at Haunted Visions.

Read more and view details on Factory 798's latest exhibitions at www.798space.com.

This post is tagged China, Chinese urban art, Factory 798, graffiti, street art, urban art