At a chinese art museum an ipad on a pedestal – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

At a Chinese art museum, an iPad on a pedestal

iPad at Chinese art museum (C) New Yorker
iPad at Chinese art museum (C) New Yorker
iPad at Chinese art museum (C) New Yorker
T.C. Sottek
is executive editor who has obsessed over headlines and internet speeds since 2011. He previously worked as an advocate for the National Park System.

The New Yorker reports that the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing has a curious new exhibit from a performance artist name Li Liao, who used to work at a company named Foxconn. For 45 days, he helped assemble iPads by looking for flawed printed circuit boards, and saved his wages to buy one for himself. The artifacts from his time at the Shenzhen factory are now up for public display: Liao’s white uniform, badges, a framed contract, and the iPad he helped assemble and then bought. “I don’t think this experience changed my perception of the products,” Liao tells The New Yorker, “it only made one thing clearer: many of the products in this world actually have nothing to do with the workers who made them. To most of the workers there, Apple was just a name, a logo.”

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.