The archless modern ‘Arc de Triomphe’, where Kunming Contemporary Gallery situates, is accompanied by a colourful balloon dog in front its facade, which is slightly different from Jeff Koons’ original in its colour combination and its stuck-out tongue. It is an appropriation of the famous exemplar of artists appropriating commonplace objects.

This installation combines the absence of the arch and the presence of the balloon dog together. Firstly, two spandrels are created to restore the curved shape of the original. Then a photo of the new building’s façade, which is made of steel and glass, is taken, cut into appropriated shape and pasted directly onto the spandrels. On top of the restored arch there arrays some modified objects, which include a photo of the original Arc de Triomphe ‘copied’ directly from the Internet (with its watermark), a photo of the Kunming version taken by myself, two selfies of me in front the Kunming version and its fellow balloon dog, details of the Arc de Triomphe’s spandrels, and the miniature of the balloon dog’s tongue. This arrangement functions like a map laying out the intricate relationships between the original physical structure and its derivative, between the respective spectacles they create, and between their respective cultural indexicalities (or the losses of that).