Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
I’ve just posted this onto my visual blog for the residency http://findingmywayinshanghai.tumblr.com/ as it conjures up an image that has been running through my mind on and off for the past couple of weeks. That of Alice asking the Cheshire Cat which way to go, and Alice being given many options, neither of which she knows how they will end up. I’ve felt a bit like that in a physical sense – lots of new information to process, finding my way through and locating myself within this megalopolis, unsure of where it will all lead.
The last few days I’ve felt a little overwhelmed with all the possibilities that I could follow up in my work, countered by the fact that I’m only here for another 9 days. Maybe I list them now to help me to understand a little more:
1. Arrows work.
-This exists as an online blog, collecting images of arrows that I have seen and been directed by whilst here in Shanghai.
-I’m also working on a series of drawings that uses the outlines of the arrows, painted in the correct colours, but with any text or elaborate design removed.
-I’ve started cutting the arrows out of the photographs and have just bought some pins, to be able to mount the photographic arrows onto small boards. I’ve been thinking that it would be great if this were a kinetic work, and the arrows rotated – to add to the paradox of the arrows trying to orientate you, but only seeming to add to the disorientation.
-I’ve also got an idea that I’d like this all to lead to an installation, which uses an animation of the arrows, moving around, which, when projected onto the floor of a space will influence how people move through it.
2. Trajectories work
-There’s the whole issue of Watermark. It’s raining for the next few days, so something using that is probably out of the question – cant put water onto a wet floor and make a mark. I had an idea for a work in Zhabei Park, but I think that is a huge participatory piece of work that would take a lot of effort. Maybe I just need to create a piece of work that is a proposal for the idea.
-I’d still like to see someone using one of the larger brushes to do calligraphy with. Maybe the weekend is the best time to see it. I’ll try again on Saturday.
-I started working with ink on rice paper at the studio of Chen Hangeng http://www.chenhangfeng.com yesterday. That was good to experiment with ink on a larger scale, and also quite physically. Although I wasn’t happy with the content of the drawings – for me, they needed to be more rooted in actual observations of people moving through space to be valid.
3. Architecture of Stairs
-I’ve taken some films of staircases and escalators as I’ve been moving up and down within the city. I don’t think that the footage I’ve got will work, as on an escalator, the camera moves with the stairs – I wanted the stairs to be moving smoothly across the screen, but also for them to transition from one place to another, altered by the play of changing light. I think this is something I’ll do a rough edit of here, but then look to develop further back at home. (But I really want to try it while I’m here!)
4. Biennale research
-I managed to find the catalogue of the 2008 biennale ‘Trans Local Motion’ I’ve bought the 2008 guide book, and have got photos of the essays in the catalogue, so I can put that to one side and do some reading on the plane home while I make work.
