Object Record / FI-EPH-442
The Tank Column and the Can
digital / PNG, 2340×1478 / collage / origin unverified / accessioned / catalogued curio
Primary evidence
The object before the record.
Narrative record
Evidence, relevance, and unresolved state.
Provenance
Custody record
Logged 2026-09-26 / quantity 1 digital image. 1 source asset reference registered.
Identification notes
What is known
Found image supplied for The Shadow Zone: an edit of the widely reproduced black-and-white photograph of a column of tanks halted on a broad avenue in Beijing in June 1989. In place of the lone man who famously stood before the lead tank, a dark energy-drink can has been pasted onto the roadway, standing alone in the tanks' path. The substitution is the whole joke; the historical photograph is reproduced as altered and found, and its use here is not a comment on the event. Maker, origin, and date are not recorded. The exif scrub reported no location metadata to strip.
Restoration relevance
Why it remains connected
accessioned / catalogued curio. Disposition: archive. The object remains associated with The Shadow Zone.
Uncertainty notes
What remains unresolved
digital / PNG, 2340×1478 / collage / origin unverified. accessioned / catalogued curio. Terms marked unknown, provisional, pending, or unverified remain part of the record until evidence resolves them.
Relationships
Keep the object connected.
Related objects
Parent system
The Shadow Zone
A holding zone for surreal found media and uncanny artifacts that surface around the archive — images with no clear origin, kept as evidence of the culture that accretes on forgotten machines.
Associated dossier / FI-PROJ-010 / open
Field logs / dossiers
Archive routes
Source Assets / 1 reference
Raw archive paths are retained for provenance and maintenance. They are not the primary object presentation.
-
assets/ephemera/shadow-zone/fi-eph-442-tank-column-energy-drink-can.pngOpen local asset