24th May 2011 The exhibition
The exhibition finally opened. The space isn’t perfect. It was a cafe-book bar and this is their first proper exhibition. But it’s good anyway as this is my first show in China, after having left her for so many years. Through making and installing the work I’ve gained a lot of new understanding about China and made many new friends.
The exhibition has a theme of ‘water’ and ‘city’, it has three parts: the photos I took during the Trial Point System; the ‘forest’ and ‘city’ photos from Chongqing City; and the stone/video installations. It’s surprising that people welcomed the stones so much. Many asked me to hold the stones a bit more before they took them home, others spent a long time playing with them. It is through the stones that I can see people’s love to the Yangtze and the nature. Some asked me why I took photos of the trees, since they are so ordinary and ‘daily’. But one 9-year-old girl answered that question for me, she said: “The big trees are all wounded, they’re bleeding; they got all their branches chopped off—it’s not environmental -friendly at all!”
I feel that it’s been a great trip and I experimented a lot in Chongqing. However to grasp a country properly, one month is really next-to-nothing. China is changing so fast and is full of energy, I have a lot of interest in it. But this will be a long process, if I want to produce some really powerful work her.
