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

Collected Texts

Phil asked me to send him some text from my experience of working in China and I thought it would be a good idea to use my blog and pick out bite size phrases. In my work I like to collect written texts such as observations and actions as part of my visual research for my performances. I originally started my blog as a way of documenting my residency, which took place in February 2010 although I have continued to write about my practice. The idea that work just stops or is completely separate from that period is not so and I feel that the residency has provided the seed which has since sprouted into a succession of new performances in the UK. I feel the opportunity to participate in the residency at the Chinese Arts Centre is another chance to make new work in collaboration with Phil Davenport and raises the question of how to communicate past experiences which happened in China within the context of the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester.

Blog bites

Just one of those details that gets lost in translation

People turned up later and missed the party

I did get stuck for a moment

Uncertainty whether I could get over

Strange leaving party

Not sure when it started and ended

In-between the audience

Learning as a means to getting

Making it and not making it

We are seen as novelty

We somehow pull it together

Muffle of people speaking and traffic noise

Giving you some peace and quiet

Let go of the control

Trust in others

Feed it to all the guests

Trying to communicate

Can sound a bit scrambled

Climb the ladder and get over the top

They were very worried I might fall

Torn between two spaces

Stack, order, display

A gap between two buildings

Arriving, working, leaving

Felt like a tourist

Looked at

Not spoken to

I am not there

I am not here

He set off a belt of firecrackers

Better Life, Better People

One World, One Dream

A world of sameness

Tried to remember

Broken western pop songs

Sliding across off the edge of the screen

I can’t order my own food

When I speak

Chinese Arts Centre Residency

On Friday I met Phil Davenport before our meeting at the Chinese Arts Centre to chat about our ideas, which just seem to be naturally flowing. It’s really nice when you have that creative spark with a person and I feel our vision for the tour is developing every time we meet. Phil is eager to use his spreadsheet concept and to expand it so it can weave through the gallery creating an installation in the space. I suggested how we could cutout sections within it and how I could use the physical gaps to speak through. We are eager to use the unusual spaces, which the public usually does not have access to such as the bedroom and the store cupboard that offer smaller enclosed rooms. I am really excited about developing performances for these smaller spaces as there is no way of avoiding physical intimacy. We talked about marketing and Phil had a really interesting idea to create bank notes and intervene them in different ways into the environment. Our work has been advertised in The Chinese Arts Centre autumn/winter programme and it was lovely to finally see them, the copy reads:

Whisper residency artists, Nicola Smith and Phillip Davenport will be developing and showcasing Ghosts move about me patched with histories this November/December. Both artists have previously taken part in the artist residencies in Chongqing and will be using the residency space here to reflect upon their experiences in China. The pair will be using Chinese Arts Centre’s residency space to trace what they describe as ‘the broken edge between different cultures and the beliefs that leak through’. Their project will use smell, taste, hunger and desire to track these ideas. Nicola will act as a deliberately misleading tour guide, taking visitors through an environment created by the pair using scripts devised by her and Phillip. Ghosts move about me patched with histories will be an immersive experience filled with two of the most powerfully coded objects that human’s encounter: money and food.

I have been thinking about my wardrobe as a tour guide and I feel that I want to move away from the obvious formal look. In my recent performances I have been playing with identity by putting on an unplaced sort of European accent, which has worked well. When I have put this accent on people have asked me if I am Polish or Spanish and are unclear if I am really putting it on or if I am really foreign. I do not want to imitate a stereotypical Chinese look, however I am interested in how people judge and want to place a person simply by the way they look and sound. I bought this book in a charity shop firstly the title grabbed my attention, ‘Race’, Culture & Difference then I was taken in by the front cover image of a woman with a band of fabric across her face. The band is making it difficult to read her face, is it an oppressive or antagonistic gesture? It could be read as both.

Emergency 2010@The Greenroom

What a weekend got to participate in and see lots of new work at the Greenroom, which is always such a treat. On the opening night I particularly enjoyed Allan Taylor’s piece titled ‘Alain D’Aylour’s Affordable Art Auction’ which the main character gives the audience advise on how to make money from your art and how ultimately art is about money. His piece was very interactive and he stayed in character the whole way akin to Lloyd Grossman in a blond wig speaking amusing art jibberish. I got to meet Mandy Romero on the Saturday night, it was nice to finally meet her and talk about her experience of traveling across China. The whole weekend was great research for me and I met some new people Matt and Jordan who put on performance/live art nights at Matt & Phreds in town. Amelia Beavis-Harrison was performing ‘In/Out’ on the doors stamping peoples hands as they came in and out of the venue she also has a blog on a-n which is a good read: www.a-n.co.uk/p/591876

To see video documentation from my Emergency Balloon Drop, please follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aslkjqMAdAo

To see video documentation from The Eventé, MA Fine Art show, please follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moa4BLJFLeM

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