3 days to go before I depart
I am half way through my packing and keep looking at all the other stuff that still needs to go into my suitcase. Today I am hoping to borrow an Edi role, which is a really high quality digital sound recorder, which I am looking forward to experimenting with in China. Yesterday I bought a disco ball just a small one; I like the idea of using the disco ball to change the look and feel of an environment simply with light, mirrors and movement. I have been learning a little Mandarin by listening to CD’s, which I have really enjoyed which is unusual for me as I find learning languages difficult. However Mandarin is a fascinating sounding language and I feel like I am learning sounds like music rather than words which for me makes it unique.
I play the CD with the speaker behind my chair, close my eyes and relax into imitating the sounds as it travels through my body. This has got me thinking about how we learn and how by making the process more physical can help people engage with it on a deeper level and hopefully retain information for longer. I have just had a look at this website (http://www.learning-styles-online.com/style/physical-bodily-kinesthetic//) I am a physical learner which explains why I don’t like sitting and listening to lectures and talks for long periods of time. I remember a programme on TV, which was a documentary about how a teacher taught a struggling group of kids English by exiting the classroom and working with the children in a park. Both the teacher and the children used more physical movements and gestures in the teacher/learning experience.
To improve my Mandarin I will be going to Mandarin Corner at the Chinese Arts Centre, which starts at 1.30pm this Saturday. This will be an opportunity to speak to people and test out what I have already learnt (http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/). I hope to continue publishing my blog whilst I am in China twice a week. If I am struggling with Internet access I may have to combine my posts into one long entry.
Round table discussion at the Chinese Arts Centre
I attended the round table discussion at the Chinese Arts Centre, which involved some of the current exhibiting artists in the Negotiable Values exhibition Rachel Goodyear and one half of Conroy/Sanderson, Yan Yan the Director of the 501 Artspace and Ying Kwok curator of the Chinese Arts Centre (www.chinese-arts-centre.org) were also present. The starting point for the show was for the artists ‘”to create works in response to the idea of ethics and moral choices.” Yan Yan goes onto say that “the exhibition brings together artists’ works which explore the notion of advancement and raises the question about the price of progress.” I don’t want to give too much away about the exhibition as you should really try and see it however the inclusion of Rachel’s work really added something else to her pieces and the exhibition, how power struggles are not only a local concern but an international issue. This show emphasizes the importance of context and how this can add to the reading of an artwork. For example the background information behind the show, how the work is hung and the place were it is shown.
I got to meet some of the other artists who are due to go to Chongqing and Phil Davenport who has just recently come back. He had an exhibition of his work in a local teahouse, which I was really pleased to hear that someone was showing work outside of the gallery (http://tony-trehy.blogspot.com/2009/12/speak-is-co…). We went for a coffee, as I was eager to ask lots of questions about his experience. I had underestimated how important it is to have these conversations as it really helped me feel less anxious about going. To be able to let someone know how I was feeling and be told that this is natural was what I needed to hear from someone who has been through the same experience. I asked Phil about simple things such as money to take, how he travelled around he even drew me a small map. It was a chance to ask him about how he felt when he first got there and the development of his work during the residency.
Only one week to go before I depart. I am starting to gather my things together and still adding to the never-ending list of stuff to take.
Taking a risk
I have been thinking a lot recently about what risks I am prepared to take in my intervention work in a different country and what the consequences of my actions may be. In the UK I do sense a little danger when I do things in public or in a professional situation were there are a certain set of assumptions and rules placed on how we should behave. I can see the potential of having a studio of my own in China to make work in and having a private, controlled space to invite audiences into. Now I know I am going to contradict myself here but for me there is something about that unpredictability of the outdoors, the risk of mis-behaving in a professional situation that makes me feel alive and an intense temporary connection with people.
In December I was invited to give a performance lecture at the Chinese Arts Centre to an invited audience who were participating in a short course run by Kai-Oi Jay Yung, Cornerhouse: The Art of Social Engagement. Ying Mei Duan the resident artist had been collaborating with different people and artists whom performed individual pieces in different parts of the gallery space (http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/). I was in the basement and set the space up like an official artist talk, although I turned the expectations onto the audience by making them carry out a series of actions exercising my temporary control over them. I ended the talk by playing an intro to a song, speaking over the top of it about the choice we all have, whether to stay or to leave, then I just walk out of the room, leaving the audience wondering if I will come back.
I went to the Negotiable Values exhibition last night at the Chinese Arts Centre (http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/). Jamie Lau is showing work as part of his Whisper residency and I was really impressed with the amount of work he had made in just 2 weeks. This has got me starting to feel a little nervous about filling a gallery space, as I am not an object-based artist. There is an opportunity today to talk about the residency with Yan Yan the director of 501 Artspace as he has co-curated the Negotiable Values show. There will be a round table discussion about the current exhibition and a chance to talk about Chongqing.
A space for exchange
I want to set-up a show and tell style workshop at the 501 studio space as a way of sharing work and ideas. Newworknetwork recently held a workshop at the Wunderbar Festival in Newcastle called Tit 4 Tat, This 4 That, which looked fun and informal. Looking at the video clips from the day people were sharing all kinds of skills such as drumming, using the voice, making paper cranes to more unusual skills like how to balance an umbrella on one foot. One artist said that attending the workshop was “an opportunity to learn new skills from other artists.” Video clips from the Tit 4 Tat workshop can be seen on the Wunderbar website. (www.wunderbarfestival.co.uk/media?video_id=7758982).
Following on from Clare’s comments noted in my previous post she raised concerns about engaging with people in a foreign country which has got me thinking about socially engaged practice and what this actually means. In some ways my practice could be labelled as this, although I do shy away from this term as I feel it gives the impression that I want to solve peoples problems with an art project, which I don’t. Of course there are different levels of engagement and as my work develops I am starting to see two sides to my practice. On one hand I work with groups of people either initiating projects or developing pieces with my peers. On the other I like to question the rules of engagement with a more antagonistic approach towards the audience in my solo work.
Both sides seem opposed, although for me I need them both to understand what one is and what the other is not. Engaging with another person could be as subtle as a glance across a room, or a full on parade through the streets with floats and bunting. I do find it challenging putting my practice into words and I am finding writing this blog a good short format to structure my thought process. I found this page on the Live Art Development Agency website called, Can we talk about practice? By Barby Asante which I found a useful read (www.thisisliveart.co.uk/projects/small_talk/small_…).
The Study Room
I managed to get my train down to London with no cancellations or delays, which I was pleased about. I used the study room at the Live Art Development Agency to research video documentation of artists who have made live art/performance work in China (www.thisisliveart.co.uk). In the study room there are a series of study guides to help users find relevant references. I used ‘A small map piece of performance art in China’ by Adele Tan, 2008 which was really helpful as it listed lots of video documentation. I know that documentation can never replace seeing the real thing/performance/event however I do believe that work can have a second life in other forms and is a good resource to have to reflect upon as a way of learning.
Even though I mostly looked at video documentation the work which is burnt into my memory is an image of MA Yanling holding a gun to her head in a public space, no one is looking at her, they just look at the camera taking a snapshot. This work was made for an exhibition called Internal Injuries 2 at the Morella gallery in Beijing, 06. Liang Tao, Madhouse in Paradise was a performance where she lived in the gallery, which was set-up like a cell and she was dressed in an institutional uniform. This personal display and blurring of public and private behaviour is something I am interested in developing in my work.
I watched the video documentation of a performance called Speech a collaboration between Clare Charnley & Shu Yang for the Dashanzui International Art Festival in Beijing, 2005 (www.clarecharnley.com). Clare appears to be in a courtyard, she takes to the stage and speaks into a mic as if she knows fluent Mandarin, however she is wired up to Shu Yang who is watching her on a live feed and relaying the story to her. I did not know what she was saying as there were no subtitles which I liked although on Clares website you can see a video clip with translation on. I think she is reading a news story about a pregnant woman who was beaten by her husband, which seems to have happened in the local area.
Clare performed Speech during 2002 – 2007 in collaboration with various artists in many different countries. She comments in her statement about the background questions to the project, “How can the foreign artist make work for a context they have a superficial understanding of? Can an audience in the host country engage with the incoming artist without viewing him/her as exotic, patronizing, didactic or irrelevant?”
As I left the Study room all I kept thinking about was, what can I offer? So I left a slightly bruised banana at a crossing in Old Street.
