4 week residency at 501 Artspace, China. From start to finish.

New Arrivals for one night only

Since being back from the New Year holidays I have been unwell which has stopped me being able to get into the studio. This has made me feel worried about running out of time to do the things I wanted here. On reflection I feel 4 weeks is too short a time to be here, and I did try to change my plane ticket but this wasn’t possible. The sound blocking headphones I ordered didn’t work as you can still hear the muffle of people speaking and traffic noise, although I do see the potential of this idea of giving people some peace and quite a project I can develop in the future. With only five days left until my final performance I have started to panic that there isn’t enough time to prepare. This is the shortest time I have had to plan a performance and I have become a bit frustrated with not being able to get some of the materials I need. Not being able to speak the language makes me feel like a child, not being able to fully organize things by myself and having to fully let go of the control and put my trust in other people has been a struggle. We went to a market yesterday and I managed to get my bunting and lots of balloons. I am thinking about getting a cake made which looks a bit like the ladder wrapped in bunting and feed it to all the guests at the show.

We have started to put together a flyer and poster for my performance and decided to go with the title ‘New Arrivals’ which is the message on a sign I bought in Manchester. I have decided to go with the more challenging space out on the landing area as I feel I do have the support here to make this happen. Although today I have had a panic and had a meeting with Chloe and Yan Yan about whether to change the performance space back to the studio, as it is an easier space to manage. Since being here I didn’t realize how much talking through ideas is part of my process and how difficult I have found trying to communicate my feelings which I admit can sound a bit scrambled making it even harder for other people to understand me. Then all of a sudden I had 3 helpers arrive and it has been all systems go setting up the piano and the ladder on the landing area. I was a bit taken aback by all the help and again found it difficult to communicate what I wanted to be done. We all muddled through it and I feel much better now seeing the main body of the work in the space before Saturday. The piano is a powerful instrument and echoes through the building and the disco ball really works covering the walls in moving lights. I tested out trying to climb the ladder and get over the top of it, which was a bit tricky it had the desired effect on the people holding it, as they were very worried I might fall.

Time is slipping away

So I am now back at the studios and have had a clear out in the space to focus on the objects and the final performance for the end of my residency. I am torn between two spaces the studio and the landing area, the studio is more appealing as it is cleaner and less cluttered although the landing area is more of a risk and I will need more support to install the work. The landing area is a larger space with a higher ceiling which would give the ladder more breathing room but I am not sure how or were to project the video. I feel I want to show both the video and do the performance in the same space and not split the work into different areas. I really need to find more bunting, I know I could try and make it myself but I like to use found objects in my work as this ties in with the place that they are from. When I was waiting for my connecting flight at Hong Kong airport I filmed a plane being prepared it was fascinating to me see how much work goes into this process. I was having a coffee and the window overlooked the area were the plane was and I filmed it by resting my camera on my laptop bag as I didn’t have a tripod. As it was being filmed through the glass there is a slight reflection and I have speeded the film up to emphasize the carefully orchestrated performance. The sound on the film is not so good but I may take the sound off and keep it purely visual.

I have found here in Chongqing and on my visits to different places the way people stack, order and display their goods really interesting. When we visited the old town in Chengdu up in the mountains I photographed a gap in-between two buildings were someone had stacked a variety of objects in a particular way. When I took this photograph people wanted to see what I was photographing and I think people thought it was unusual for someone to take a picture of such a thing. Over the New Year period we visited Ren Qian’s family and on the ground floor of the property they let the space out to an artist who is a sculptor. I found the way the objects were naturally placed in the space like an art installation and I could imagine seeing this in a gallery. This has got me thinking about context and how we read work as art if it is placed in a gallery or part of an exhibition or event. I showed a young girl Din Din Cat she was 18 and another local artist my work on my website and they found it confusing and difficult to understand it as art. Referring to context beyond the site and placement of art it just revealed to me how, education, travel, social and political influences in our everyday lives effect how we see art.

Happy New Year

As it has been Chinese New Year I have been away for the past five days visiting Yan Yans family and friends whom have been very hospitable. It has been strange though arriving and working for a week and then being away, although what a wonderful experience to be in China at this time of the year. I have eaten some amazing food, the chicken is very good here and I have tried new foods such as pig’s lip and ear, which is like chewy bacon. In most of the restaurants we have visited in the different places we have been there is usually a big pot simmering away in the middle of the table with lots of stock and spices with a choice of meat and fish. After we have eaten the meat you then add vegetables and along the way drink the soup, which is really tasty. My favourite drink here has been a nutty milk, sometimes peanut last night it was walnut and is normally warmed up and is sweet if a hotpot is too spicy the milk can calm the chilli down in your mouth. In Long Quan Yi I stayed at Yan Yans sisters flat which was really nice and funny as we both couldn’t speak each other’s languages so there was a lot of body language and laughter. With not being able to speak Mandarin when we have visited different people sometimes I have felt a bit like a tourist attraction, which can be looked at and not spoken too. At the dinner table if there are more than 4 people I loose track of what is being said and on occasion have felt like I am not there. However all this aside everyone has made me feel very welcome and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about my experiences so far.

When we were away I did get to meet and interview Zhou Bin a Live Artist who lives in Chengdu. We visited his studio and when we arrived he set off a belt of firecrackers, which were so loud. We then had tea, which his wife made, and I was fascinated with the process of how she was making it, I can really appreciate the process as art. Yan Yan helped translate for me and I interviewed Zhou about his time in Manchester for the Vital event in 2007 and I got a chance to talk to him about my work. We could see similarities and distinct differences in our work for example durational performance is very popular in Chinese Live Art and using irony and humour are more English traits.

We go back to Chongqing today and I am looking forward to picking up my sound blocking headphones and planning ahead for this performance. During my stay here the Shanghai Expo is being heavily advertised with the strap line, ‘Better Life, Better People’ this also reminds me of the Beijing Olympics slogan ‘One World, One Dream, I find these messages very ‘utopian’. Expo has a green theme which I find very contradictory for example what about the pollution which will be created by the traveling participants and visitors, and then what will happen to the site when Expo is finished? I am thinking about incorporating some of these cheesy strap lines into my performance, I could use them in a banner of some sort, maybe on some ribbon. I have found China to be very Chinese lots of places I have been to are very westernized, although China retains a strong identity. There can be no ‘One World, One Dream’ as we are so different which is a good thing, who wants to live in a world of sameness? It would be a pretty boring place.

Meeting New Artists

I have been introduced to some really interesting artists some have studios at 501 or in the local area others are here just for the New Year holidays. I met Zhou Yumei an installation and performance artist who has a studio in Beijing and we talked to each other about our work (Http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhouyumei). Although there is the obvious language difference the Internet helps to look at images of work and we could understand basic art terms. Mao Yan yang has a studio here at 501 and he paints, Mao has done the residency at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, which I had seen so this gave me some reference to his work (www.maoyanyang.com). He kindly documented my performance and has told me about his experience about temporarily living in Manchester; I hope to interview him after the New Year. I was lucky to meet the artist Ren Qian his practice involves video, photography and performance, when he showed me his work I recognised his ‘Water’ works were he collected bottles of water from different rivers over a period of 10 years. We went to his studio and Chloe and myself interviewed him about his experience of working in London. I was overwhelmed by Ren’s work especially making it over a ten-year period. This has got me thinking about my work and how my pieces are very short and temporary, it seems that durational performance work in China is popular.

All the artists I have met have been very friendly and are eager to hear about my work. I can feel quite shy talking about my work, as I like to just show it rather than talk about it. Yan Yan is eager for me to do an artist talk at the studios which I would like to do but I am worried how much will get lost in translation. Were do I start with my talk? Recently I have turned artist talks into performances, however I feel on this occasion this is not appropriate. Interviewing and talking to the artists here will help me structure my presentation and I will discuss this further with Yan Yan. I feel a little nervous as I am still very much an early career artist and my work has significantly changed since 2007 with more of a focus on performance. The event I plan to have at 501 will be a new experience for me as I have either collaborated with other people or have been part of a group event. I would prefer to do a talk about what I have done rather than discuss my old work, as this will be easier to translate in real time, although Yan Yan thinks I should do the talk at a different time. I’m not so sure I think combining the two would be better and the audience will get more of an understanding about the work.

I have been giving serious thought as to where I will show my work, as I don’t feel that the studio is the right space for me. I really like the entrance to the 501 studios and the landing area on the first floor, which my studio is next to. I am drawn to these spaces as they are in-between and dark which is ideal for using lights and my disco ball. A young boy called Dou Dou has been practising playing the piano in the studio and I would like to do a performance with him for my final showing. He plays very well, although I found it more interesting when he tried to remember different melodies, creating a broken soundtrack. Since I have been here, listening to my music has been a great comfort and a motivator to work in the studio and I would like to combine Dou’s piano playing with my own recital of broken western pop songs. My aim is to create an ‘International Performance’, which continues my enquiry into the meaning of the word ‘International’. I have also been developing the Chinese medicine illustration into a moving slideshow with the image sliding across and off the edge of the screen.